Eli Lilly said Thursday it will hike the UK list price of its diabetes and weight-loss drug Mounjaro by up to 170%, in response to pressure from the Trump administration.
A month's supply of Mounjaro — the brand name in the UK for tirzepatide as a treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes — will cost 330 pounds in cash, up from 122 pounds previously, Reuters reported. The new price goes into effect Sept. 1.
Eli Lilly acknowledged the disparity between the U.S. and other developed countries. Patients in the U.S. pay nearly three times more for their medicines. Now, President Donald Trump is pushing ahead with his Most Favored Nation drug pricing plan, which aims to align U.S. prices with what patients in other countries pay.
"The U.S. system is complex and opaque, with multiple cross subsidies, abuse of government programs like 340B, and insurance cost-sharing burdens for patients," Eli Lilly said in a statement. "This makes the U.S. different from other developed nations, which have a less complicated system and low, or no out-of-pocket costs for patients."
Eli Lilly stock jumped 3.6%, closing at 684.46.
Eli Lilly Plays Ball
In an executive order earlier this year, Trump said pharmaceutical companies should charge U.S. patients no more than the lowest prices paid by patients in any country that's part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OCED, and has a gross domestic product per capita of at least 60% of the U.S. GDP per capita.
But it was unclear how companies would respond given the order didn't have any penalties for pharma companies that didn't fall in line.
"The question is really how," Eli Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks said on the company's second-quarter call with analysts last week. European governments are "not signing up to pay more for drugs. So, we need trade tools to rebalance that equation."
In the U.S., Lilly says it's worked hard to expand access to Mounjaro and Zepbound. The latter is the U.S. branded name for tirzepatide as a weight-loss drug. The company noted it has reduced insulin prices by 70% and capped what people pay monthly at $35.
Shares Climb After Setback
Eli Lilly stock has climbed into the green the past four days, but shares remain well below their key moving averages. The stock took a massive 14% hit on Aug. 7 after Lilly reported disappointing study results for its daily weight-loss pill, orforglipron.
Now, shares have a poor IBD Digital Relative Strength Rating of 12. This means Lilly stock has performed in the bottom 12% of all stocks over the past 12 months. Shares have a better but still middling Composite Rating of 57. The CR tracks a stock's fundamental and technical metrics.
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