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Pharmaceutical Giant Demands UK Pay More for Medicines to Resume Investment

Monday, March 30, 2026 at 1:24 AM

Eli Lilly's international president told the Financial Times the company wants Britain's healthcare system to increase drug payments and eliminate a rebate program. The pharmaceutical executive expressed optimism about reaching a deal by summer that would require higher medicine costs.

Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is demanding that Britain’s National Health Service pay higher prices for medications and eliminate a billion-pound rebate program before the company will restart its investment in the country, according to a Financial Times report published March 30.

Patrik Jonsson, who leads Eli Lilly’s international operations, revealed in the Monday interview that he’s currently negotiating with British government officials and feels “optimistic” about securing a deal before summer that would increase what the nation pays for pharmaceutical products.

The negotiations include exploring “innovative” payment structures that would tie the cost of weight-loss medications to patients’ ability to recover sufficiently to rejoin the workforce, according to Jonsson.

Jonsson criticized the current pricing system, stating that drug costs in Britain have been “far too low for far too long, and even with the current threshold, we are not back to where we started more than 20 years ago.”

The British Department of Health and Social Care responded by saying “Everyone deserves access to the best and most innovative treatments, and our changes to medicine pricing will make sure thousands of NHS patients gain faster access to new treatments.”

The department added: “We remain fully committed to delivering the UK-US Pharmaceutical Agreement, including the changes to the NICE cost-effectiveness threshold.”

Last August, Lilly dramatically increased the British list price for its weight-loss drug Mounjaro by as much as 170%, explaining that it had originally priced the medication “significantly below” rates in three other major European markets to avoid NHS access delays.

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