The UK cost of weight loss drug Mounjaro will increase by up to 170%, its US manufacturer has said, as the White House pushes for a price hike abroad so costs can be cut for Americans.
The new price, announced by manufacturer Eli Lilly on Thursday, also applies to Lilly’s type 2 diabetes medicine that has the same name.
The price for a month’s supply of the highest dose of the medicine will increase from £122 to £330, Lilly said, adding the adjustment will be made next month.
The higher price will not affect those prescribed the medicine through the NHS, which has a separate deal, a Lilly spokesperson said.
The US drugmaker said that when it launched Mounjaro in the UK it agreed to a list price “significantly below” that in its three other European markets to prevent delays in availability through the NHS.
“We are now aligning the list price more consistently,” Lilly said.
Lilly did not say what price it has agreed with the NHS, but said it was working with private UK healthcare providers who can set their own prices, such as online pharmacies, to ensure the medicines remain available.
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It follows Sky News earlier this month revealing only eight of 42 NHS Integrated Care Boards in England were providing the weight loss treatment to patients, and many of the rest were unable to guarantee when it would be available.
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Lilly’s decision comes as US President Donald Trump is pushing for lower domestic prices while encouraging price hikes overseas.
The US pays more for prescription drugs than any other country, often nearly three times as much as other developed
nations.
Mr Trump says he wants to narrow this gap to stop Americans from being “ripped off”.
Read more:
Why the wait for Mounjaro on the NHS?
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The company issued a statement online saying: “Lilly supports the administration’s goal of keeping the United States 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.”
