Have Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug gains hit a plateau?
Sales of Lilly’s weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound are eking higher and underwhelming analysts.
Revenues from popular weight-loss drugs made by Eli Lilly are flattening out. That’s disappointing to investors who were hoping for bigger gains.
The company’s GLP-1 medications, Zepbound and Mounjaro, have made billions since they entered the market in 2023 and 2022, respectively. But they’re not delivering the same double-digit growth they once did.
Investors sent the stock down more than 12% in early trading.
Eli Lilly made $1.25 billion in sales from Zepbound, up from $1.2 billion in the previous quarter and sharply below the $1.76 billion that analysts had expected. It made $3.1 billion from Mounjaro, basically flat from the previous quarter and also falling short of analysts’ estimates.
Mounjaro and Zepbound are Eli Lilly’s smaller, but still mighty, competitors to Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, which got in on the weight-loss drug craze early.
But even Novo Nordisk has been experiencing normalization in sales: Ozempic, the most popular GLP-1 drug, had its best quarter in December when it made the company more than $30 billion, and it hasn’t beat that level since.
The drugs make so much money in part because they’re not cheap. A month’s supply of Zepbound will run you about $1,000. Employers and patients have had to eat that price, and have been looking for bargain versions.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, naturally, don’t like that other companies are making their drugs for cheaper.
The active ingredient in Zepbound and Mounjaro, tirzepatide, was recently taken off the FDA’s shortage list. Eli Lilly was quick to send cease-and-desist letters reminding bargain pharmacies like Hims & Hers that they aren’t able to make copycat versions anymore.
