Drugmaker Won't Put Price in TV Ads, But Patients Can Look It Up

Eli Lilly won't put the price of its prescription drugs in television ads, but as of Tuesday, the company will start airing ads touting a website that will have information about drug list prices, patient assistance programs and average patient cost for medicine, reported Bloomberg.

According to the news source, the first ad will be for the injectable diabetes drug Trulicity, which costs $730 for a month's supply. Trulicity had estimated sales of $3.2 billion last year.

As part of a push to lower US drug costs, the Trump administration has proposed requiring drugmakers to put the list price of their products in advertisements.

However, Eli Lilly along with PhRMA have disagreed with that approach. CEO Dave Ricks said "we're not ruling that out long term," adding that "this is a first step. We think it's the right first step and we'll study that question and perhaps that could be in the mix in the future."

Meanwhile, the company plans to expand the program to the psoriasis drug Taltz and breast cancer drug Verzenio by the end of February.

Over the next few months, it will offer pricing disclosures on its site for the rest of its drugs. Eli Lilly will solicit feedback from the Trulicity ads to inform future pricing initiatives and disclosures, the news source said.