Eli Lilly on Thursday raised forecasts for its full-year profit and revenue after the surging popularity of its weight-loss and diabetes drugs, Zepbound and Mounjaro, saw the drugmaker easily surpass third quarter earnings expectations.
Shares of Eli Lilly, currently the world’s largest healthcare firm by market capitalisation, soared by 7 per cent in pre-market trading.
Lilly now predicts it will achieve an adjusted profit of between $23.00 and $23.70 per share this year, an increase on its previous guidance of $21.75 to $23.00 per share.
Investors had been keenly anticipating the drugmaker’s latest results, given the exceptionally high expectations for its GLP-1 portfolio and mounting concerns over potential US price negotiations.
The company’s strong performance was attributed by Chief Executive Dave Ricks to the continued, robust demand for its Incretin portfolio (a class of drugs that mimic natural hormones to improve blood sugar control).
The weight-loss drug Zepbound, which was authorised in late 2023, posted sales of $3.6 billion for the reported quarter, outperforming analysts’ estimates of $3.23 billion.
Zepbound’s prescription rates are now largely outstripping those of rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, despite the latter having been on the market for over two years longer.
Lilly competes directly with Novo Nordisk for dominance in the weight-loss drug market, which is forecast to be worth $150 billion by the end of the decade. Novo Nordisk will announce its own earnings on 5 November; its US-listed shares were trading down 1.4 per cent following the Lilly news.