Will Higher Mounjaro UK Prices Lead to Cheaper Branded Tirzepatide in the US?
- Dave Knapp
- Sep 18
- 3 min read
Here's everything you need to know about today's news.
Eli Lilly is raising the price of Mounjaro in the UK by up to 170%, and people are already asking the obvious question:
Is this pharma fighting back against U.S. Most Favored Nations drug pricing reform?
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Not exactly.
If anything, this was the tradeoff that was built into the MFN strategy all along.
Because despite the headlines, the Most Favored Nation (MFN) executive order doesn’t actually force pharma to lower prices. It doesn’t come with ironclad penalties or airtight enforcement. What it does rely on is getting pharma to voluntarily participate in a global pricing reset.
And the only way to make that happen is to give them something in return.
That “something” just showed up in the UK.
Starting in September, Eli Lilly will increase the list price of Mounjaro in the United Kingdom to:
£330 per month for the highest doses (up from £122)
Increases of 45 to 138% for lower dose strengths (per reports)
Lilly says NHS patients won’t be affected, for now. But this wasn’t a slip. This was a move made with intention.
They told the Financial Times the change reflects “pricing inconsistencies compared with other developed countries.” Translation: the UK was underpaying, and now that matters more because the U.S. is watching.
MFN Was Never a One-Way Street
The whole idea behind MFN is to tie U.S. drug prices to what other wealthy countries are paying. If a medication is cheaper in France or South Korea or Canada, Americans should get that same deal.
Sounds fair. But here’s the reality:You can’t force a global company to play ball without letting them touch the scoreboard.
The architects of MFN knew that. That’s why this policy doesn’t punish drugmakers. It invites them to the table creating a new pricing model where the U.S. pays less, and other countries pay a little more.
That’s the deal.
Lilly’s move in the UK isn’t defiance. It’s cooperation, under the terms that were quietly built into the plan.
What the U.S. Gets in Return
This isn’t a loss for American patients. It might actually be the beginning of a realignment that finally brings prices down here without gutting innovation or access.
By raising global prices, pharma gets to protect its margins.
By benchmarking to those new global prices, the U.S. gets relief at the cash
register.
It’s not a revolution. It’s not even reform in the traditional sense. It’s a strategic reset that spreads cost more evenly across borders instead of continuing to load it entirely on American shoulders.
Will that play out perfectly? No. But let’s not pretend pharma just “got caught” doing something sneaky. This is what participation looks like when the system gives companies a reason to participate.
What This Means for You
None of this changes the day-to-day grind of patients fighting for access.
Savings cards still expire. Prior auths still get denied. Insurers still throw up roadblocks. And even with global price shifts, we are still waiting for those savings to reach actual people in need of care.
So while this UK move might be a necessary piece of a larger puzzle, it’s not a win until a patient standing at the pharmacy counter in Indiana or Mississippi sees that price tag drop. Or folks on medicare and medicade finally get access to the drugs that are treating the chronic disease of obesity.
The Big Takeaway
This isn’t the pharma rebellion. This is the pharma handshake.
The U.S. said, “You’ll lower what we pay. to what they pay around the world”Pharma said, “Fine. But you need to help us raise the floor around the world”Now the rest of the world is starting to feel that ripple.
We’ll see if it works.
We’ll see if patients get anything out of it.
We’ll be watching.
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