Last week’s announcement that Eli Lilly will raise the price of Mounjaro by up to 170% represents a devastating blow to millions of obesity patients who’ve already been failed by our healthcare system.
While discussions on rebates in the wake of the price hike continue, as it stands, the price increase will see the highest dose rise from £122 to £330 per month, affecting those accessing the drug privately.
As someone who has witnessed first-hand in my community the transformative impact of GLP-1 medications like Mounjaro, I’m deeply concerned about this decision’s impact on vulnerable patients. These aren’t just numbers on a balance sheet - they represent real people desperately seeking help for a condition that has excluded them from nearly every other treatment pathway.
These are patients who’ve been systematically excluded from NHS care through BMI requirements and arbitrary thresholds. For bariatric surgery, patients need a BMI of 40 or more, or between 35-39.9 with serious health conditions.
Read more: Lilly implements Mounjaro ‘order freeze’ for UK wholesalers
For fertility treatment, most NHS areas restrict IVF to women with a BMI below 30, requiring them to reach 29.5 to be eligible. The message is clear: you’re too fat for surgery, too fat for fertility treatment, but expected to lose weight through willpower alone - essentially telling patients with a recognised complex chronic disease to use ‘power of the mind’ to treat themselves.
When Mounjaro emerged as a genuine game-changer - with clinical trials showing average weight loss of 15-20% - it offered hope to those abandoned by the system.
Yet the NHS remains slow in rolling out access. Around 220,000 Brits are expected to access Mounjaro through the NHS in the first three years, but with over 28% of UK adults living with obesity, this leaves millions without support.
Truth
To understand the impact, consider the financial burden this places on ordinary families. The median household disposable income in the UK is £32,300, with median weekly pay for full-time employees at £728. For someone earning the median wage, the new annual cost of Mounjaro - nearly £4,000 - represents more than 12% of their entire disposable household income.
Read more: LATEST: DH reveals new Mounjaro NHS reimbursement prices
These patients are already spending their life savings on private healthcare because the NHS has deemed their condition insufficiently urgent. Reports already show patients reducing their dosage and abstaining from making other, regular purchases to continue to be able to afford the medication. This price hike will force many to choose between continuing their treatment and other necessities.
Let’s understand what’s driving this decision: political pressure from Donald Trump’s administration.
In July, Trump sent letters to 17 major pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, ordering them to lower prescription drug prices in the United States. Trump gave these companies 60 days to comply, saying he wants companies to negotiate harder with “foreign freeloading nations” who pay less for their medicines.
Eli Lilly’s response has been to raise prices in Europe in order to make them lower in the US, calling this a necessary rebalancing to ensure fair global contributions to the cost of innovation.
Read more: Pharmacies must be at the heart of the weight loss jab revolution
Even at the new price, Mounjaro remains well below the level in the US, where it costs over $1,000 a month. But this reveals the complexity of the situation: Americans already pay three times more than British patients will under the new pricing.
What options exist to address this crisis? Could Eli Lilly consider expanded patient assistance programmes for those most in need? Might the company explore innovative payment models that spread costs over time or link pricing to treatment outcomes?
The NHS also faces difficult questions. While NHS England confirms that prices for Mounjaro accessed through the NHS would remain unchanged, the painfully slow rollout means most patients will continue paying privately for years. Could emergency measures expand NHS access for the most vulnerable?
When treatment accessibility becomes a luxury rather than a healthcare right, we must question our priorities. The patients I serve aren’t seeking handouts - they’re asking for fair access to treatments that could transform their lives. Many work in demanding jobs, contribute to their communities, and simply want the same opportunities for health that others take for granted.
British patients deserve thoughtful consideration, not to be caught in the crossfire of international pricing disputes. The coming months will test whether we can find solutions that honour both medical innovation and patient welfare - because in healthcare, surely both must matter.
Stuart Gale is founder and CEO of Oxford Online Pharmacy