Sales of weight-loss drug Ozempic are reportedly up by 500 to 600 per cent in Britain following the announcement of price rises of its popular competitor Mounjaro.
Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Mounjaro, said prices of the drug will almost triple from 1 September to bring it in line with other countries.
Ozempic, also known under the name Wegovy, is manufactured by Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, and will now be around half the price of Mounjaro.
It comes after Donald Trump’s administration complained about “foreign freeloaders” who rely on the US to pay more for medicine.
Mr Trump explained in May that his plan to impose price controls on prescription medications was inspired by hearing from a friend about the low cost of weight-loss medication in the UK compared to what that person paid for the same medication in the US.
He told reporters of taking a call from a “friend” in London, who he described as a “highly neurotic, brilliant businessman” and “seriously overweight”, about the cost of what Mr Trump described as “the fat shot drug”.
Mr Trump said, according to his friend: “I’m in London, and I just paid for this damn fat drug I take. I said, it’s not working. They said, he said, I just paid $88 and in New York I paid $1,300. What the hell is going on? he said. So I checked, and it’s the same box made in the same plant by the same company. It’s the identical pill that I buy in New York, and here I’m paying $88 in London, in New York, I’m paying $1,300.”
The price hikes by Eli Lilly mean a month’s private prescription of the highest doses of Mounjaro – the “King Kong” of weight-loss medicine – will rise from £122 to £330, which is an increase of 170 per cent.
The shift to Ozempic is “continuing to run at about 500 to 600 per cent at the moment, and we are not surprised to see that”, claimed Toby Nicol, founder and chief executive of Chequp, a provider of the weight-loss treatment.
“People living with obesity have been waiting for weight-loss drugs for decades. They are literally the magic bullet for many people, and they suddenly find that the drug they’re on has doubled in price,” he told The Independent.
“We understand why they’ve done it, but the impact on patients is very dramatic. People encouraged to start a weight-loss journey have now been told the prices are going up. It’s a kick in the teeth for them, it really is.”
He warned patients should only switch treatments under the supervision of a trusted pharmacist to manage any potential health risks.
Eli Lilly said when it launched Mounjaro in the UK, it agreed to a list price “significantly below” that in its three other European markets to prevent delays in availability through the NHS.
In a statement, the company said “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”.
A spokesperson added: “We are continuing to work with certain governments and expect to make any necessary pricing adjustments by 1 September, while providing continued access for patients. This includes an agreement with the UK government to increase the list price of Mounjaro, while maintaining access for NHS patients.”
At least 500,000 people in the UK take either Mounjaro or Wegovy, another weight-loss jab, via prescriptions from private online pharmacies, according to retailers.
In June, the NHS offered Mounjaro to obese patients after health experts calculated from NHS England data that there were 97,500 patients who would benefit from the treatment.
Prices paid by the NHS for the drug will not rise after the health service negotiated a substantial discount for patients taking the drug on prescription. Eli Lilly said it was working with private healthcare providers to maintain access to the jab.
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