Eli Lilly Says It Will Raise European Prices of its Medicines as Trump Pushes for U.S. Price Cuts

Eli Lilly is raising the U.K. list price for the largest dose version of Mounjaro, its Type 2 diabetes and obesity treatment, by 170%. (George Frey/Bloomberg)

The White House’s effort to lower drug prices in the U.S. is bringing higher drug prices to Europe. The Indiana-based drugmaker Eli Lilly said on Thursday that it is raising the list prices of its drugs overseas.

Lilly said that “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.”

The announcement comes amid pressure from the White House on drugmakers to cut the U.S. list prices of branded drugs, which are 422% higher than in other wealthy countries, according to a government report based on 2022 data.

Late last month, President Donald Trump issued letters to Lilly CEO David Ricks and to the CEOs of roughly a dozen other large pharmaceutical companies, giving them until late September to cut the U.S. prices of certain drugs or the administration will “deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families.”

Lilly’s announcement appears to be a gesture at meeting the White House’s demands, though its significance is difficult to judge. Governments and insurers generally don’t pay the full list price for medicines, and the impact the hikes will have on the company’s earnings from Europe and other overseas markets is unclear.

The Trump administration has been pushing a plan that would peg prices paid for prescription drugs in the U.S. to the lowest prices paid in other wealthy countries, the so-called most-favored-nation price. Trump’s late July letters to pharma CEOs demanded that companies lower prices to most-favored-nation rates for drugs already on the market being sold to Medicaid, and that the lower prices should apply to newly launched medicines for all other payers.

By raising prices in Europe, Lilly could notionally soften any blow to earnings from cutting U.S. prices. Perhaps more important, Lilly could also increase the most-favored-nation price that the White House hopes to use to set U.S. prices.

Lilly said Thursday it was raising the U.K. list price for the largest dose version of Mounjaro, its blockbuster Type 2 diabetes and obesity treatment, by 170%. The drug, sold in the U.S. under the names Zepbound and Mounjaro, is sold for all indications under the brand name Mounjaro in the U.K.

Lilly is also raising the U.K. list prices for lower-dose versions: The price of the lowest dose of Mounjaro will increase by 45%, while the price of higher doses will jump by between 96% and 138%. Lilly says that patients will still have access to Mounjaro through the U.K.’s National Health Service.

Lilly shares were up 2.2% on Thursday.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com