London: Eli Lilly chief executive Dave Ricks has said that the UK is ‘probably the worst country in Europe’ for drug prices, criticising the country’s strict regime that allows it to pay less for medicines than other developed nations.
Ricks has argued that unless changes are made, Britain could face a shortage of new medicines and reduced investment from global pharmaceutical firms.
The warning comes as the UK pharmaceutical sector has faced setbacks this year. Large companies have scrapped or paused projects worth more than $2.2 billion (£1.8 billion), citing the unattractive pricing environment. The voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (VPAG), designed to keep NHS costs down, has seen rebate rates rise sharply after NHS spending on branded drugs grew faster than expected.
US-based MSD, known as Merck in America, cancelled a $1.2 billion (£1 billion) London research centre earlier this month. AstraZeneca also halted a planned $240 million (£200 million) expansion in Cambridge, while another project in Liverpool was scrapped. Eli Lilly has paused a London lab investment worth $335 million (£279 million), part of a broader package, and Bristol Myers Squibb has warned it may not launch a schizophrenia treatment in the UK.
In total, 13 major projects or companies have withdrawn or scaled back UK operations since 2022, including closures and delistings. Ricks said that this reflects an environment unattractive to international investors.
At the same time, Eli Lilly has raised the UK private market price of its weight-loss drug Mounjaro by up to 170 percent after finding that buyers from Europe were travelling to Britain to purchase it at lower cost. Ricks said that the pricing discrepancy made little sense for the company.
While pulling back from Britain, Eli Lilly has expanded elsewhere. The firm, valued at over $700 billion (£519 billion), announced a $6.5 billion manufacturing facility in Houston this week. Ricks said that the timing was not tied to US President Donald Trump’s deadline for pharmaceutical companies to agree to lower drug prices in America.
The US administration has been pressing for drug costs to be reduced to levels comparable with those in other countries. Trump reiterated his position, citing the high cost of weight-loss medicines in the US compared with the UK and Europe.
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