How the Most-Favored-Nation Pricing Policy Is Forcing Eli Lilly to Rethink Its European Weight-Loss Pill Launch

The Trump administration's Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) pricing policy, signed as an executive order on May 12, 2025, benchmarks U.S. drug prices to the lowest prices paid by other developed nations . The policy is now cascading through global pharmaceutical strategy — reshaping how Eli Lilly will launch its new weight-loss pill Foundayo (orforglipron) in Europe, depressing overall European drug launches, and compounding the effects of Germany's aggressive cost-cutting legislation on regional R&D investment and patient access.

Foundayo’s European Launch: A New Playbook

Eli Lilly expects to bring Foundayo to Europe and the UK in the second half of 2026 or early 2027 . The FDA approved the once-daily oral GLP-1 pill in the U.S. on April 1, 2026, under a National Priority Voucher program that completed review in a record 50 days . In clinical trials, patients on the highest dose lost an average of 11-12% of their body weight over 72 weeks .