Lilly signs up to $1.3 billion deal with Superluminal Medicines to develop obesity medicines
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Metro
10 minutes ago
- Metro
Cost of Mounjaro weight-loss drug to go up by 170% in the UK within weeks
The manufacturers of a new weight-loss drug recently rolled out by the NHS are upping their prices by 170%. Eli Lilly is increasing the price of Mounjaro, which is also used to treat type 2 diabetes, in the UK from September. It comes amid a White House push to get drug makers to raise their prices overseas in order to cut prices in the US. The price for a month's supply of the highest dose of Mounjaro, a 15mg KwikPen, will increase from £122 to £330. The cost of a 2.5mg pen, the lowest dose available, will rise from £92 to £133 from September 1. This means the annual cost of the 15mg dose will increase from £1,586 a year to £4,290. This higher price will affect anyone in the UK who pays for the medicine privately. However, it doesn't impact those who are prescribed the medicine through the NHS, as these prices were set with a separate deal, a Lilly spokesperson said. The manufacturer said it agreed to a list price 'significantly below' others in Europe to prevent delaying Mounjaro's availability on the NHS. 'We are now aligning the list price more consistently,' Lilly said. Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, told the Daily Mail: 'We are shocked and very disappointed by this huge more than doubling of the wholesale cost of Mounjaro by the manufacturer Eli Lilly. 'British patients must not become pawns in a wider dispute about the costs of medicines arising from President Trump's recent letter to the US drug manufacturers.' Mounjaro was launched in the UK in February 2024, compared to rival Novo Nordisk's Wegovy treatment which has been available since September 2023. Lilly said it was working with private UK healthcare providers to ensure patients can keep accessing the medicine and potentially negotiate discounts which could be passed on to customers. The manufacturer also said clinical research had proved the effectiveness of the Mounjaro injections, saying the drug had demonstrated its 'value'. Known as tirzepatide and marketed under the brand name Mounjaro, the drug injection helps people to manage blood sugar. It works in a similar way to semaglutide – sold as Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus – which are in the same family of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist medications. Administered by weekly injections, tirzepatide changes hormone levels in the body to slow down how fast food is digested. This make you feel more full, for longer, on less food. Alongside healthy eating and exercise, this can help people lose weight. But there are pros and cons to taking the weight-loss drug, including some side effects. Short-term: Sickness and nausea Indigestion & heartburn Constipation Diarrhoea Headaches Injection site reactions (redness, bruising, tenderness, swelling) Gallstones and pancreatitis (in rare instances) Positive impacts on heart health (in some instances) Long-term: Weight loss Muscle mass reduction Slower metabolism Insulin resistance A spokesperson for Lilly said: 'Following a review, Lilly will increase the UK list price for Mounjaro (tirzepatide) from September 1 to address pricing inconsistencies compared to other developed countries, including in Europe. 'In parallel, we have reached an agreement with the NHS to ensure continued supply and patient access. 'While Lilly does not determine the prices that private healthcare providers set, we are working with them to maintain patient access. 'The UK was one of the first countries where Lilly launched Mounjaro, and our priority was to bring it to patients as quickly as possible during a time of limited supply of GLP-1 RA treatments for type 2 diabetes. 'At launch, Lilly agreed to a UK list price that is significantly below the European average to prevent delays in NHS availability. 'With changes in the environment and new clinical evidence supporting the value of Mounjaro, we are now aligning the list price more consistently to ensure fair global contributions to the cost of innovation.' The US pays more for prescription drugs than any other country, often nearly three times as much as other developed nations. More Trending President Donald Trump says he wants to narrow this gap to stop Americans from being 'ripped off'. An NHS England spokesperson said: 'Licensed, cost-effective weight loss medication, such as tirzepatide (Mounjaro) provides a valuable tool to support people to reach a healthier weight and the wider health and lifestyle benefits that offers. 'The approved list price increase will not affect NHS commissioning of tirzepatide in England for eligible people living with obesity, based on clinical priority, or as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. 'Anyone with questions about their private tirzepatide prescription should contact their private provider.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Chikungunya cases double in UK as expert warns 'all it takes is one mosquito bite' MORE: What is AI psychosis? The rise in people thinking chatbots are real or godlike MORE: Man, 60, gave himself rare condition after going to ChatGPT for diet advice
Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump says 25% odds Putin meeting ends in FAILURE as he's accused of selling out to Russia with minerals deal to stop war
President Donald Trump said Thursday that there's a '25 percent' chance his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is a failure. Trump gave those odds during a phone interview Thursday morning with Brian Kilmeade, as part of his Fox News radio show. The president leaves first thing Friday for his meeting with Putin, which is taking place in Anchorage, Alaska. Trump played coy when asked by Kilmeade what he might offer Putin to entice him to stop his three and a half year assault on neighboring Ukraine. 'Well, I'd rather not say,' the president answered. 'Because I don't want to play my hand in public.' He said there were 'economics incentives and disincentives' and that the disincentives were 'maybe more important in a way.' 'You know, Russia's got tremendous potential,' Trump continued. 'They have the largest piece of land by far. Massive.' The Telegraph reported Wednesday night that Trump planned to incentivize Putin by offering him access to rare earth minerals, which garnered the president criticism from anti-Trump former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger. 'What an absolute weak a** sellout,' Kinzinger posted Wednesday night to X. A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment on the Telegraph's report. During his call with Kilmeade, Trump tempered expectations for the meeting, which marks the first time a U.S. president is meeting face-to-face with Putin since the Russian leader invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 'I don't know if we're going to get an immediate ceasefire,' Trump said. He reiterated that he hoped the Alaska meeting would eventually set up a 'peace deal' and would open the door to there being a second meeting that would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 'And depending on what happens with my meeting, I'm going to be calling President Zelensky and let's get him over to wherever we're going to meet,' Trump said. 'I don't know where we're going to have the second meeting but we have an idea of three different locations,' he revealed. 'Including the possibility, because it would be, by far, the easiest of staying in Alaska.' Earlier Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the day would conclude with Trump and Putin side-by-side giving a press conference. On Kilmeade's show, Trump said that plan wasn't set in stone. 'I'm going to have a press conference. I don't know if it's going to be a joint - we haven't even discussed it,' the president said. 'I think it might be nice to have a joint and then separates, so something like that will happen.' 'Or if the meeting doesn't end well, we'll have a press conference and head out, I'll head back to Washington,' the president added. But Trump emphasized that the Alaska meeting 'sets up the second meeting.' 'The second meeting is going to be very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they can make a deal,' he said. On a call with Zelensky and European leaders Wednesday, Trump was frank with Ukraine's president that there would likely need to be 'land swaps.' Zelensky has resisted the idea of giving up any of Ukraine's territory to Putin. 'And I don't want to use the word divvy things up, but you know, to a certain extent, it's not a bad term, OK? But there will be a give and take as to boundaries, lands, etc. etc.,' Trump told the Fox News host. 'But there is a 25 percent chance this meeting will not be a successful meeting,' the president added.
Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
California city named world's most relaxing...but it's beaches are strewn with SEWAGE from nearby southern border
San Diego has been named the world's most relaxing city - but the tranquility of its golden beaches are under threat from sewage seeping in from the southern border. The California city was ranked first as the 'top city to unwind' based on metrics including spa access, air quality, sunshine hours, happiness and natural spaces. International eSIM provider Holafly gave the coastal metropolis a 'relaxation score' of 68.7 out of 100, followed by Singapore with 66.8 and Vienna, Austria with 63.5. This owed in large part to San Diego having 'the sunniest climate' among the cities listed, with an average of eight hours and nine minutes of bright sunlight per day. The picturesque city's balmy climate draws flocks of residents and tourists to South Mission and Central Beach each year - but the tides have turned in recent months. Analysis of the beaches on both sides of the southern border over the past two years have detected alarming levels of fecal matter in the water stretching 50 miles north of the US-Mexico coastal border, scientists have warned. One Coast Project and Permanent Forum of Binational Waters researchers have said fecal bacteria in the sea exceeded health standards almost every day of the year. The groups have collected water samples since 1999 along 65 miles of western coastline from Carlsbad, California, to Baja California in Mexico. Extremely high levels of enterococci bacteria, which can cause serious infections, were detected in Southern California beaches over the spring in particular. Researchers said they found an average of 15,000 units of the bacterium pre 100 milliliters of water, which is almost 100 times the legal limit in the US and Mexico. Enterococci comes from fecal contamination, and it can cause gnarly gastrointestinal, skin, urinary tract and even heart infections. The bacteria type has been found much more frequently in San Diego waters since 2020, after a sharp rise in the contamination on the Mexican side in 2018. Director of One Coast Project Rosario Sanchez told Fox News there are very different testing protocols on each side of the border. 'In the U.S. side, there's more standardized procedures in terms of how often testing is done, basically daily, but on the Mexico side it can be just once a month if that,' she said. Sanchez said that coastal water quality is way off meeting basic health standards for more than 325 days per year across the coastline. 'This has impacts on both sides on both sides of the border, we're not talking just water quality, but we're talking about health,' she said. The contamination in San Diego is also compounded by toxic sewage spills from the Tijuana River Valley on the south side of the border city. Californians living in the Imperial Beach area have complained about respiratory problems and other complications that they believe are linked to the waste in the river. According to the San Diego Coastkeeper, the 'failing sewage infrastructure in Mexico' and 'negligent operation of the South Bay Plant by the US government' are to blame for the pollution and smell. On the US side, crews have placed riprap - large rocks - in the river in an attempt to stop the foul smell of sewage from plaguing the valley. In Mexico, environment groups are working to replace a section of an ageing sewage pipeline with a newer one made of concrete. However, the only way to rebuild the pipeline with minimal pollution was to allow sewage waste to run through the river during the construction. The International Boundary and Water Commission, a federal government agency monitoring the waterways between Mexico and the US, announced on April 9 that the team in Mexico would be working around the clock to fix the pipeline. The US side of the IBWC said Mexico had informed them that the decision to dump five million gallons of wastewater a day into the river was a 'difficult decision,' but there were no other alternatives to fixing the sewage problem. The IBWC said that even though the sewage dump was 'bad news,' the decision was the best way to prevent wastewater from polluting the Tijuana River long-term.
