U.S. drug makers are starting to hike prices abroad after Trump's ultimatum
The pharmaceutical giant said prices in Europe will need to rise to bring them down in the U.S., following demands by President Donald Trump
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Eli Lilly is raising the price of the weight loss drug Mounjaro in the U.K., after President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on drugmakers to lower U.S. prices and raise them abroad.
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The price of the drug is expected to rise by up to 170% in September, increasing the cost of a monthly supply at the highest dose from £122 ($165) to £330 ($447). The company said it had agreed with the British government to raise prices while “maintaining access” for patients covered by the U.K.’s National Health Service.
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Last month, Trump wrote to 17 of the world’s biggest drugmakers, including Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer, demanding they slash prices for U.S. consumers as part of his “most favored nation” policy. The scheme aims to bring down drug prices by tying charges in the U.S. to lower ones abroad.
Eli Lilly said Thursday that it has “intensified efforts to align prices across developed countries, especially in Europe”.
“We are continuing to work with certain governments and expect to make any necessary pricing adjustments by September 1, while providing continued access for patients,” it said.
Prescription drug prices in the U.S. are often two to three times higher on average than those in other developed nations, according to the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund. The list price for a month’s supply of Mounjaro in the U.S. is $1,079.77 before insurance.
Eli Lilly added that it supports Trump’s goal of keeping the U.S. the “world’s leading destination for biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing, and the objective of more fairly sharing the costs of breakthrough medical research across developed countries.”
“This rebalancing may be difficult, but it means the prices for medicines paid by governments and health systems need to increase in other developed markets like Europe in order to make them lower in the US,” it said.
Trump wrote in July that he would “deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices” if companies did not comply with his demands, saying other countries had been “freeloading on U.S. innovation”.
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry is bracing for planned U.S. tariffs of medicines imported into the country. Eli Lilly said Thursday that it opposes the tariffs, saying they will raise costs and limit access to drugs.