Mounjaro sales help almost double Ely Lilly’s UK turnover
The sale of weight loss drug Mounjaro has boosted the UK turnover of pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly by 90 per cent during its latest financial year, it has been revealed.
The division of the US group has posted a turnover of £889m for 2024, according to new accounts filed with Companies House.
The new total is up significantly from the £468.7m it reported for the prior 12 months.
The results also show that Eli Lilly’s pre-tax profit surged from £32.2m to £51.7m over the same period.
Eli Lilly said its turnover had increased by so much because of a rise in third part sales of goods of 150 per cent.
It added that growth in research and development and regional services to other group companies also boosted its sales by five per cent.
Eli Lilly said: “These changes were in line with local and global management expectations.
“The core commercial operations of pharmaceutical distribution and promotion for Eli Lilly and Company Limited remain strong.”
Eli Lilly makes UK investment pledge
The results come after Eli Lilly announced a deal with the UK Government in October 2024 in which it pledged to invest £279m into the country.
The company said that would bring the expected total Eli Lilly investment into the UK up to £435m.
Speaking at the time, Eli Lilly chief executive David Ricks said the UK had become a “relatively small market” since leaving the European Union and must develop a different investment proposition from its counterparts in order to be interesting to multinational corporations.
Ricks warned that due to the UK’s independent trading position, it must prioritise “flexibility, agility and business responsiveness” if it is to continue attracting sufficient investment.
Speaking to the Today programme, he added: “I think we find that [regulation holds back] almost every developed economy.
“But I think the difference with the UK is, on your own, separate from Europe, it’s a relatively small market for most multinationals – and certainly Americans.
“So something needs to be quite different to make it interesting.”
In August this year, Morning Wire reported that Ozempic sales had risen five-fold after a 126 per cent rise in the price of the Mounjaro drug due to pressure from US President Donald Trump.
Mounjaro has been the UK’s most popular weight loss jab, prescribed to an estimated 90 per cent of the country’s patients.
But around 625,000 patients are expected to switch to Wegovy (Ozempic) after Eli Lilly said the price per jab for Mounjaro would rise by an average of 126 per cent, and up to 170 per cent for the largest doses.
Wider industry trouble
Last week, British drug giant Astrazeneca paused a planned £200m expansion of its research site in Cambridge in a fresh blow to the UK pharmaceutical industry.
The news came after the pharmaceutical firm abandoned plans to invest £450m in a vaccine plant in Merseyside earlier this year.
US pharmaceutical giant Merck also recently scrapped its planned £1bn UK expansion, deciding to no longer occupy its research site in London King’s Cross, despite construction set to be completed in 2027.