Dave Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, speaks in the Oval Office during an event on weight loss drugs at the White House in Washington, November 6, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
Elie Lilly opposes White House efforts to codify “most favored nation” drug pricing into law, CEO Dave Ricks said in an interview with CNBC.
Lilly is among a dozen drugmakers that signed deals with the Trump administration last year, agreeing to charge similar prices for prescription drugs in the United States and other wealthy countries. President Donald Trump has long complained that Americans pay high prices to subsidize low drug prices in the rest of the world.
The pharmaceutical industry believed the agreements would allay these concerns and thwart attempts to make “most favored nation” pricing the law. But the White House has pushed Congress in recent months to codify certain elements of the agreements. The draft text has not been made public, although the administration has said it is trying to get pharmaceutical companies to support its efforts.
Lilly doesn’t support him, Ricks said.
“When you run it through the congressional process, what goes in is not what’s going to come out,” Ricks said. “And I think we see a lot of people who would rather cut prices today and not worry about whether we will have new drugs tomorrow, not worry about whether America will have a robust pharmaceutical industry and whether we will be able to do research in this country. And I worry about those things, so I don’t think it’s a good idea, and we’ve been pretty clear with the administration and congressional leaders about that.”
Ricks said he believes the Trump administration and leaders on the Hill are listening to the company’s concerns, but he said Lilly will use “every tool we have to fight bad policy, and we think it would be bad policy.”