Let's not miss the big angle here..they have lossed TONS to compound pharmacies because of the weight loss coverage cut.
This is thier way of trying to get that $ flowing back in.
What kills me is we of all people know that what we pay for ours from overseas is marked up and obviously making money. My Gosh that mark up from compounds and medpspas...Lilly could have come in way lower and just raked in the

...not saying they won't make it because so many are so hung up on the FDA bs..but I think they let greed get a hold and misses the mark
Big pharma will definitely do all they can to shut down both compounding, research vendors, import etc, that's only natural - they are technically stealing from Ely Lilly.
About the price difference directly from China and via a pharmaceutical company, there is no way Ely Lilly could have the price you pay them even as a baseline cost. It wouldn't surprise me if they can't even produce at the cost domestic vendors sell for. There are strict regulations, testing, supply chain requirements, facility requirements, they have a huge organization and so on - All of this overhead runs the price up rapidly, the total investment for r&d and manufacturing far exceeds 10billion, which they have to factor into the cost and recuperate somehow. So you can't really use the prices you get from China as a comparison.
Not saying they are "nice guys", but it is a business and they operate in order to make money - not to help people. They did however develop this for us, so there is no reason to hate them for it
And as you mentioned, people are very wary of anything medicine related from sources outside of the official ones - So I would assume that the people at Ely Lilly aren't idiots, and their pricing probably reflects a more or less optimal price point for making money.
As a side-note, even domestic vendors has a higher purchase cost than the price you get from China. They have an overhead cost too, and they don't necessarily source from the cheaper options since reliability and safety is more important than saving a few $ per vial if they want to run a smooth operation.
At the end of the day, it's up to the consumer to decide what option is suitable for them.
Personally I believe compound and med spas will be the ones disappearing from the market (if anyone does), they are by far the biggest leakage for Ely Lilly since they operate within the confines of the law and prescriptions.