By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY)'s Mounjaro is being launched in Britain this week, two pharmacy companies said on Wednesday, making the UK the fourth European country to introduce the highly-anticipated obesity drug.
British pharmacy and beauty chain Superdrug said on Wednesday that eligible private patients could seek prescriptions for Mounjaro, also approved for diabetes, through its Online Doctor service from Thursday.
The retail chain added, however, it would prioritise its stock of Mounjaro for National Health Service (NHS) patients, citing likely strong demand as indicated by the popularity of Novo Nordisk (CSE:NOVOb)'s rival weight-loss drug Wegovy, which was introduced in the UK last year.
Britain's Simple Online Pharmacy told Reuters it started filling Mounjaro prescriptions and sending out packs on Tuesday.
"All pharmacies in the UK are able to order Mounjaro which is then available to both NHS and private patients," a spokesperson at Simple said.
Simple has a wait list of over 80,000 patients seeking a weight-loss treatment, the spokesperson added.
Lilly declined to comment. The U.S. drugmaker on Jan. 25 said it won regulatory clearance for pre-filling Mounjaro into an injection pen, allowing it to launch the drug in Britain within weeks.
It said at the time that Britain would be the first major market to be supplied with the drug in the more convenient pen that is good for four weekly subcutaneous shots, branded as Kwikpen.
Germany, Switzerland and Poland have seen Mounjaro launched before Britain. In those countries, the drug has for now been packaged in vials and patients need to draw the medication into syringes before injection.
Rival Novo, ahead in the race to serve a weight-loss market that some analysts expect to reach $100 billion in annual revenue, has been scrambling to boost production of Wegovy and its lower-dose version Ozempic for type 2 diabetes, amid overwhelming demand.
Superdrug said a 4-week course of Mounjaro at 2.5 milligram and 5 mg starter doses would cost 215 pounds ($270) under its private service, while Simple said its starter dose would be priced at 189 pounds.
That is slightly below the price in Germany, which according to Lilly is 259.48 euros ($278.11) for the starter doses. The highest maintenance strength of 15 mg is not yet available in Germany but Lilly has said the price would reflect the higher dose.
The concentration of the active ingredient in the new weight-loss shots needs to build up over months to reach a maintenance level to slowly accustom the body to the appetite-suppressing peptides.
Nearly one in three adults are obese in Britain, the highest rate in Europe, according to a 2019 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report. That compares with an obesity rate of about 19% in Germany and an EU average of 16.5%, according to EU statistics.
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