Eli Lilly is fattening its stockpiles of GLP-1s to prevent tariffs from trimming its profits
Imports of peptides and protein-based hormones — the category that GLP-1 weight-loss drugs fall under — from Ireland are already more than double than last year.
As the threat of tariffs looms over the pharmaceutical industry, it appears Eli Lilly isn’t taking any chances with its top revenue driver.
As of May of this year, the US has imported nearly 3x as many peptides and protein-based hormones — the import category that GLP-1 weight-loss drugs fall under — from Ireland as it did in 2024.
Lilly’s blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss shots, Mounjaro and Zepbound, are made in Ireland. Nearly all of the imports for that category since 2018 had a final destination of Indiana, where Lilly is based.
Lilly’s GLP-1 drugs came to the market after Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, but have quickly caught up. Novo predominantly produces the active ingredient for its GLP-1 drugs in Denmark, but manufactures the final product in the US.
President Trump threatened to include pharmaceuticals in his broad-ranging tariff announcement. They were ultimately excluded, but in April the Department of Commerce launched an investigation into the national security risks associated with pharmaceutical imports, with tariffs looming as the administration’s remedy of choice.
The risk of unprecedented tariffs on medicines has had drugmakers front-running products this year. The spike in US imports of pharmaceuticals swelled the country’s trade deficit to a new record in March.
