The manufacturer of the weight-loss drug Mounjaro has paused shipments to the UK before a significant price rise for the treatment next month.
The US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is due to increase the UK list price of the drug by up to 170% from September amid a White House push to get drugmakers to raise medicine prices in Europe to allow for price cuts in the US.
The company said that in order to manage its supply and ensure that patients maintained access, it had allocations in place for pharmacies and providers that ordered medicines from the company.
There were legal protections to prevent inappropriate stockpiling of medicines by providers, Eli Lilly said. It plans to resume orders on 1 September.
The rise in prices could result in a month’s supply of the highest dose of the medicine increasing from £122 to £330 ($165 to $445).
Eli Lilly has reportedly told its two British wholesalers to temporarily stop taking orders after demand soared before the price increase comes into force on 1 September. Pharmacies said there had been panic buying of the drug since the price announcement this month.
People using Mounjaro have been warned against switching to sellers on the hidden economy or bulk buying.
While many pay for the drug in the UK, it became available on the NHS at the end of June, and Eli Lilly says the higher price will not affect those who get it through the health service.
Mounjaro – also known by its generic name tirzepatide – has become a popular alternative to the most well-known weight loss drug, Ozempic. Both drugs, which are taken as weekly injections, were developed as treatments for type 2 diabetes.
When it was launched in Britain in February 2024, Eli Lilly agreed to a list price “significantly below” its other European markets to stop delays in availability of the medicine through the NHS.
The increase in the list price will align it more consistently, the company has said, although it added that the NHS would not pay the new, higher price to ensure continued access for people with obesity and type 2 diabetes receiving it through the health service.
On 31 July, Donald Trump sent letters to 17 of the world’s biggest drugmakers, including Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, demanding cuts to prices for Americans within 60 days.
In May, the US president told reporters that a friend in London had told him he had bought the “fat-shot drug” for $88, compared with $1,300 in New York.
Many Mounjaro customers have already switched to Wegovy – a cheaper weight loss drug produced by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
But Ahmed Ahmed, the president of the British Obesity and Metabolic Specialist Society, said some people using Mounjaro were very reluctant to change to Wegovy for fear of an increase in side-effects or reduced effectiveness.
In addition, many providers recommend a “wash-out” period before switching medications.
And while Novo Nordisk told the Guardian it has “no plans of changing our offering” and is “confident in the future of our supply of Wegovy” to the UK, experts say a price rise could yet come, while increased demand could cause problems with its availability.
Ahmed added that with price rise and supply issues largely affecting the highest dose of Mounjaro, patients who wished to continue at such levels were resorting to buying multiple injection pens of lower doses to use consecutively. While he noted the approach cost more than purchasing one 15mg pen, Ahmed said many pharmacies no longer had supplies of the latter.
He said a common motivation for patients seeking private prescriptions of Mounjaro was to access fertility treatment. “A lot of ladies need to bring their weight down to basically become eligible [for IVF],” he said.
But weight-loss jabs are also used by some to shed weight before operations.
“Patients who have been privately using Mounjaro to lose weight before surgery but who now won’t be able to get access to the drug face the very real danger of having their vital operations delayed or even cancelled,” said Dr Leyla Hannbeck, the chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, adding that could have untold ramifications for the NHS and its waiting lists.
Hannbeck added that the situation surrounding Mounjaro should be a wake-up call for policymakers.
“Ministers need to understand that patients priced out of Mounjaro risk giving up on their weight-loss journey, likely creating greater pressure on the NHS,” she said. “Their do nothing approach has left patients and the pharmacies that serve them in limbo, ministers should rethink and step in now to put pressure on Eli Lilly to immediately restore supplies.”
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