U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY) has temporarily stopped shipments of its popular weight-loss drug to the United Kingdom (U.K.).
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The halt comes ahead of a new price increase for Eli Lilly’s Zepbound weight-loss drug in the U.K. Eli Lilly announced earlier in August that it is raising the U.K. list price of the drug by up to 170% in September. The big price increase comes as the White House pushes U.S. drugmakers to either raise prices in other jurisdictions or cut prices in America.
Eli Lilly said that to manage its supply and ensure that patients maintain access to Zepbound, it has allocations in place for pharmacies and providers in the U.K. that order medicines from the company. There are legal protections in place to prevent inappropriate stockpiling of medicines by providers.
Adjusting Prices
Going forward, the price for a month’s supply of the highest dose of Zepbound will increase from the equivalent of $164.81 to $445.80. Eli Lilly has said previously that it supports the Trump administration’s goals related to the pharmaceutical industry.
In a recent statement, Eli Lilly said that it supports the aim of making America the “world’s leading destination for biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing, and the objective of more fairly sharing the costs of breakthrough medical research across developed countries.”
Is LLY Stock a Buy?
The stock of Eli Lilly has a consensus Moderate Buy rating among 23 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 17 Buy and six Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. The average LLY price target of $910.61 implies 24.69% upside from current levels.
