Eli Lilly Beat Wall Street Expectations, Raising Full-year Sales To $85b

Eli Lilly obliterated Wall Street expectations yesterday, quashing any concerns that the drugmaker’s weight loss drug-fueled growth is slowing down. Lilly also raised its full-year sales outlook by $2 billion, expecting big things from its newly launched GLP-1 pill.

The details. The drugmaker’s Q1 revenue of $19.8 billion beat Wall Street’s expected $17.62 billion and was up 56%, compared with last year’s first quarter. Lilly is now expecting full-year sales to potentially reach $85 billion, up from its previous high forecast of $83 billion. The revenue boom is thanks to the company’s GLP-1 products:

• Revenue from Mounjaro more than doubled in the last year, jumping 125%, to $8.66 billion in worldwide sales during Q1, compared with the same time last year.
• And revenue from Zepbound was up 80% during the first quarter of the year, compared with the same period last year. The drug brought in $4.16 billion in quarterly US sales.

The golden child

Although Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic kicked off the GLP-1 craze, Lilly has repeatedly outpaced its rival in the GLP-1 sector. This quarter, it snapped up 60.1% of the US obesity and diabetes drug market, while Novo held 39.4%.

But Lilly’s biggest test will be whether the public adopts its new weight loss pill, Foundayo, which was approved just last month. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill had a three-month head start. Still, Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said yesterday that 20,000+ people have already started taking Foundayo, and about 1,000 people start the drug every day.

As if pharma giants need more gas…yesterday, the FDA proposed excluding semaglutide (Novo’s active ingredient) and tirzepatide (Lilly’s active ingredient) from the list of drugs that compounders can obtain in bulk. The move, if finalized, would kneecap popular copycat makers like Hims & Hers from producing their own weight loss drugs.

GLP-1s are moving markets, even outside pharma: Magnum Ice Cream Company said in its earnings report yesterday that portion-control ice creams helped make up for slower treat sales, as consumer preferences shift with the popularity of weight loss drugs. Meanwhile, Hershey CEO Kirk Tanner reported sharp rises in gum and mint sales, which he chalked up to the unofficial “Ozempic breath” side effect.—MM