The logo of Eli Lilly is shown on an office of the company in San Diego, California, US, on September 17, 2020.
Mike Blake | reuters
Analysts surveyed by LSEG expected full-year adjusted earnings of $12.50 per share and sales of $41.44 billion.
The company said the increased guidance is partly due to “greater visibility” into production expansion for Zepbound, Monjaro and similar drugs for the remainder of the year.
The results and guidance increase mark Zepbound’s first full quarter on the US market after receiving approval from regulators in early November. Sales of the drug were recorded at $517.4 million in the first quarter, while the US faces a shortage of most doses of the drug, which is expected to last until June.
Analysts say the weekly injection could record sales of more than a billion dollars in its first year on the market and potentially become the biggest drug ever.
Eli Lilly said demand for Monjaro and Zepbound — treatments known as incretin drugs, which mimic hormones produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite and control their blood sugar — outstripped supply during the quarter. has increased rapidly.
The company said it is continuing to expand its manufacturing footprint, with the most significant production growth expected in the second half of the year.
“Our top priority is to make more products, and we’re doing everything we can,” Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’re growing it aggressively. But it’s capital intensive, it’s technically complex and highly regulated.”
Ricks said Monjaro and Zepbound are “among the most complex drugs we have ever created.”
Here’s what Eli Lilly reported for the first quarter compared with Wall Street’s expectations, based on a survey of LSEG analysts:
- earnings per share: $2.58 adjusted vs. $2.46 expected
- Income: $8.77 billion vs. $8.92 billion expected
Eli Lilly reported net income of $2.24 billion, or $2.48 per share, for the first quarter. That compares with a profit of $1.34 billion, or $1.49 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items related to the value of intangible assets, among other adjustments, the company made a profit of $2.58 per share for the first quarter of 2024.
The pharmaceutical giant reported revenue of $8.77 billion in the first quarter, up 26% year over year.
Eli Lilly shares jumped nearly 7% in premarket trading Tuesday. They are up 26% this year after jumping nearly 60% in 2023 due to insatiable demand for the company’s weight loss and diabetes drugs. This is despite their hefty price tags, irregular insurance coverage and intermittent supply shortages.
With a market cap of approximately $700 billion, Eli Lilly is the largest pharmaceutical company based in the US.
Both of the company’s best-selling diabetes drugs missed Wall Street expectations in the first quarter.
Monjaro posted revenue of $1.81 billion in the first quarter, more than triple the $568.5 million it booked during the year-ago period. However, according to StreetAccount, analysts were expecting sales of $2.11 billion.
Eli Lilly said higher prices for Monjaro helped boost revenue, citing lower use of savings card programs for the drug, particularly in the U.S.
But the company said those savings card dynamics should “cease to significantly impact the actual price comparison” because the $25 monthly coupon for patients who don’t have insurance coverage for Monjaro expires in June.
Meanwhile, sales of Eli Lilly’s older diabetes drug Trulicity fell 26% to $1.46 billion during the first quarter. That’s less than the $1.59 billion that analysts were expecting, according to StreetAccount.
According to Eli Lilly, the decline in sales in the US was primarily due to supply shortages and competition with other diabetes treatments. Revenues outside the US also declined due to lower demand and material prices as well as tight supply.
Revenue growth was also driven by sales of Eli Lilly’s breast cancer pill Verzenio, which rose 40% to $1.05 billion for the quarter due to increased demand.
However, the results were in line with analysts’ expectations, which had forecast $1.11 billion in sales for the period.
Sales of Jardiance, a pill that lowers blood sugar in Type 2 diabetes patients, rose 19% to $686.5 million in the first quarter. Analysts had expected sales of $718.3 million from Jardiance.
Jardiance, which Eli Lilly shares with Boehringer Ingelheim, is one of the first 10 drugs selected to face price negotiations with the federal Medicare program.
