People using the popular weight-loss drug Mounjaro in the United Kingdom are set to pay a higher price for it, as pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly said it will raise the U.K. list price by up to 170 per cent.
This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to get drugmakers to raise prices in Europe to allow for price cuts in the United States.
However, Canadians are not going to see a price hike, a spokesperson for Eli Lilly Canada told Global News.
“Last week’s announcement was specific to the UK, not Canada, so there are no pricing updates to share for Canadian patients,” the spokesperson told Global News in an emailed statement.
The new U.K. price, which also applies to Lilly’s Type 2 diabetes medicine with the same name, is effective from September. The price for a month’s supply of the highest dose of the medicine will increase from £122 to £330 (C$227.98 to C$616.67), the company said.
The move reflects how the pharmaceutical industry is navigating policy changes in the United States, by far its most lucrative market, where Trump is pushing for lower domestic prices and encouraging price hikes overseas.
Last week, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks told an investor call that parity between U.S. and European drug pricing was desirable in the long run, though he warned that European governments “are not signing up to pay more for drugs.”
— with files from Reuters