Lilly´s Nordic manager on Mounjaro launch in Sweden: "Patients deserve respect"
Av Mounjaro (tirzepatid) is the name of the drug, which became available in Swedish pharmacies less than two weeks ago. It has been approved in the EU as a treatment for type 2 diabetes since September 2022, and was also approved in April this year as a treatment for adults with obesity.
Despite the fact that there has for some time been a shortage of similar drugs, Eli Lilly has chosen to wait with the launch in Sweden – until now.
– As a company, we wanted to make the drug available to patients when we can deliver enough in each country. Now we are very happy to be able to offer Mounjaro in Sweden, because we have a stable supply, says Daniel Lucas to Life Science Sweden.
The drug has been compared to Novo Nordisk's well-known and best-selling diabetes and obesity drug Ozempic/Wegovy (semaglutide), but Daniel Lucas thinks that is incorrect. Although both target the GLP-1 hormone, which is important for appetite regulation, Mounjaro has an additional property: it also targets the incretin hormone GIP.
– We really think that this makes the two drugs uncomparable. This is a new class of drugs.
Mounjaro is a once a week injection treatment. In clinical trials treatment with the 15 mg dose has led to weight losses of up to 22 percent, according to Eli Lilly. Some of the most common side effects are nausea, vomiting and constipation.
In Sweden, the Swedish Medical Products Agency has warned against too light-hearted prescribing of Ozempic to patients outside the indication of type 2 diabetes, which has led to a shortage of the drug and to diabetics being left without their medication.
Eli Lilly does not expect such inconveniences.
– We do not foresee any problems, because Mounjaro is indicated for both type 2 diabetes and obesity, and we have a good and reliable supply that is sufficient for the patients who need it.
Are you sure you will have enough supply?
– We know how it has looked in other countries where we made Mounjaro available, and that has given us a good indication how to forecast our supply. But can I guarantee 100 percent what will happen in the next six months or a year from now? No, no one can.
The price for Mounjaro is expected to be around SEK 2,700 for one month's consumption with 5 mg doses. Eli Lilly is preparing an application to TLV, the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency, for the treatment to be covered by the pharmaceutical benefit and thus subsidized. Until then, the product is offered to patients who can pay the entire cost themselves.
According to Daniel Lucas, Eli Lilly wants to help change the attitude towards obesity, not only by providing a treatment, but also by changing the tone and dialogue around the disease.
– Obesity is a chronic disease, and patients deserve respect like any other patient. It's not their fault, we can all have illnesses. That is an important aspect for me.
Eli Lilly currently has around 20 medicines on the Swedish market, and several more are on the way. The company's pipeline includes, among other things, new therapies in hematology, gastroenterology – and in Alzheimer's disease.
As for the latter, Eli Lilly has developed donanemab, which together with lecanemab (developed in early stages by Swedish company Bioarctic) are the only drugs so far that have been shown to have a slowing effect on the dreaded neurodegenerative disease.
In order to prepare for the launches, Eli Lilly has recently expanded significantly in the Nordics. The company's workforce has grown by nearly 50 percent in the last two years, and today consists of 220 employees in total in the Nordic countries, of which approximately 60 in Sweden
Daniel Lucas, who has worked within Eli Lilly in a number of different markets since 1998, says that he has never before experienced such a level of innovation, and that the company is working hard to take the new treatments to Sweden and the Nordics.
At the same time, he feels that there is inertia and elements of unpredictability in the Swedish system that make it unnecessarily complicated to get new medicines to the patients.
– Sweden has all the conditions to be in the top tier of healthcare in Europe, but if we are to be a leader in innovation, we must ensure that patients have access to it as well. In my opinion, we are not 100 percent there today.
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