Eli Lilly & Company’s logo at the company’s Digital Health Innovation Hub facility in Singapore on Thursday, November 14, 2024.
Ole Huiin | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Eli Lilly The company on Tuesday lowered its earnings outlook, saying demand for its weight loss and diabetes drugs will not meet high expectations.
The company’s shares fell more than 7% in midday trading Tuesday.
Eli Lilly said it now expects full-year 2024 sales to be about $45 billion. This is lower than the $45.4 billion to $46 billion the company had expected in October. Even with the new outlook, sales are expected to increase 32% year over year.
Eli Lilly is investing billions of dollars to expand its fast-growing manufacturing capacity for so-called incretin drugs, seeking to meet surging demand for its diabetes drug Munjaro and obesity drug Zepbound. I’m excited. It seems the efforts are bearing fruit. In December, the Food and Drug Administration reaffirmed its decision to declare the U.S. shortage of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in both drugs, resolved.
Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday that the company has “a tremendous amount of supply online” and that “this kind of growth will likely continue.” Deaf,” he said.
He also said the company expects to add more manufacturing capacity and produce at least 60% more salable doses of the incretin drug in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2024.
For the fourth quarter, Eli Lilly expects revenue of $13.5 billion. The total includes approximately $3.5 billion for Mounjaro and $1.9 billion for Zepbound.
Wall Street had expected fourth-quarter and full-year sales of $13.94 billion and $45.49 billion, respectively, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG.
The outlook downgrade comes amid competition from Eli Lilly. novo nordisk Other smaller rivals are vying for a share of the exploding weight-loss and diabetes drug market. Eli Lilly is developing an obesity drug that is more convenient for patients and easier to manufacture, and Ricks expects it to be approved as early as early next year.
“The U.S. incretin market grew 45% compared to the same period last year, and our previous guidance had expected growth to accelerate further in the quarter. In addition to the lower results, our fourth quarter results,” Ricks said in a statement.
The company also said it expects fiscal 2025 sales to be between $58 billion and $61 billion.
Eli Lilly is scheduled to release its full quarterly results on February 6th.
