In a move that is sending shockwaves through both the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, US drugmaker Eli Lilly has announced a dramatic increase in the price of its popular weight-loss injection, Mounjaro, for private patients in the United Kingdom. Effective September 1, 2025, the cost for a month’s supply of the highest dose will skyrocket from £122 to £330—a staggering 170% hike, as confirmed by the company in statements to multiple news outlets including CNN and The Sun.
This sharp increase will not affect patients prescribed Mounjaro through the National Health Service (NHS), who will continue to pay under existing arrangements. According to Eli Lilly, the NHS has a separate deal in place, ensuring that approximately 220,000 UK citizens expected to access Mounjaro via the NHS in the first three years of its introduction will not see their costs rise. Private clinics and individuals, however, will feel the pinch, and suppliers are now scrambling to negotiate discounts to soften the blow for their customers.
The timing of this price adjustment is not coincidental. Over the past months, President Donald Trump has been mounting pressure on major pharmaceutical companies to address the wide disparity between US and international drug prices. In July, Trump sent letters to the CEOs of 17 leading drugmakers—including Eli Lilly—urging them to reduce US prices to match those seen abroad. The president’s push culminated in a May executive order, which introduced a “Most Favored Nation” rule. This directive aims to harmonize drug prices between the US and other developed nations, with Trump stating during the signing, “Americans should get the best deal.” He recounted a conversation with a friend who paid just $88 for the same medication in the UK, compared to $1,300 in New York, asking, “What the hell is going on?”
While experts have noted that Trump’s legal authority to force drugmakers to lower US prices is limited, the political and public pressure has been enough to prompt voluntary changes. Eli Lilly, for instance, has openly acknowledged that the UK price hike is part of a broader strategy to lower US prices by raising them elsewhere. In a statement to CNN, the company said, “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.”
The pharmaceutical giant further elaborated on its rationale, noting that Mounjaro was initially launched in the UK at a price “significantly below” that of its three other European markets. This was done, according to the company, to fast-track NHS availability and prevent delays for British patients. “With changes in the environment and new clinical evidence supporting the value of Mounjaro, we are now aligning the list price more consistently to ensure fair global contributions to the cost of innovation,” a spokesperson explained.
The move has not gone unnoticed by UK healthcare providers and patients. Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, voiced concerns over the impact on those paying privately and on the pharmacies themselves. “Patients on courses of treatment or considering weight loss programmes will be very concerned about sudden price rises for Mounjaro so we are urgently supporting our members to limit the impact on patients and ensure they can continue their courses of treatment and the wrap around care that pharmacies provide which is so important as part of weight loss programmes,” Gregg said. He added, “Short notice changes to pricing for medicines such as this also have a serious effect on access to an important public health service and pharmacy businesses themselves so we are urging the manufacturers to ensure that pharmacies are treated equitably and that proper support is in place to ensure pharmacies can continue to offer what is a highly popular and effective service to their communities.”
The spike in demand for weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro, Ozempic, and Wegovy has been a global phenomenon, with prescriptions surging and public awareness at an all-time high. This has led to supply shortages and placed additional strain on healthcare systems, especially as more people seek medically supported solutions for obesity and type 2 diabetes. According to retailers, at least half a million people in the UK currently use either Mounjaro or its rival Wegovy through private clinics or prescriptions.
For Eli Lilly, the pricing changes are part of a larger, ongoing effort to address the highly complex US pharmaceutical market. The company has pointed out that the American system is “complex and opaque, with multiple cross subsidies, abuse of government programs like 340B, and insurance cost-sharing burdens for patients.” In contrast, many other developed countries have simpler systems with lower or no out-of-pocket costs for patients. In recent years, Eli Lilly has taken steps to reduce patient costs in the US, including scaling up its Lilly Direct program to provide more affordable access to its medicines, cutting insulin prices by 70%, and capping monthly out-of-pocket payments at $35.
Despite these efforts, the US remains the world’s largest and most lucrative market for prescription drugs, with Americans often paying nearly three times as much as patients in other developed nations. The Trump administration’s strategy has been to pressure pharmaceutical companies to raise prices in Europe and elsewhere, thereby creating room to lower them at home. Eli Lilly has signaled its support for the idea that drug prices should be “more fairly shared across developed countries,” while also cautioning that the US market’s unique challenges cannot be ignored.
As the September 1 deadline approaches, private suppliers and clinics in the UK are racing to adjust to the new normal. Some, like the private weight-loss clinic Juniper, are already guiding patients toward alternatives such as Wegovy, manufactured by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, which has been available in the UK since September 2023. Meanwhile, private suppliers are entering negotiations with Eli Lilly in hopes of securing discounts that might ease the burden on their customers.
While the immediate impact of the price hike will be felt most acutely by private patients in the UK, the reverberations of this decision are likely to be felt much more broadly. The pharmaceutical industry, caught between political pressure in the US and the realities of international pricing, is navigating a new era where price harmonization may become the norm rather than the exception. Whether this will ultimately lead to more affordable medicines for Americans—or simply shift the burden elsewhere—remains to be seen.
For now, the message from both Eli Lilly and the Trump administration is clear: the era of dramatic price disparities in prescription drugs is under serious scrutiny, and the world is watching to see who pays the price for change.
