Eli Lilly & Co. logo. At the company's Digital Health Innovation Center in Singapore, on Thursday, November 14, 2024.
Ore Huying | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Eli Lilly The company cut its revenue guidance on Tuesday, saying demand for weight loss and diabetes drugs would not meet its lofty expectations.
Shares of the drugmaker fell more than 7% in midday trading Tuesday.
Eli Lilly said it now expects full-year 2024 revenue to be about $45 billion. That's down from $45.4 billion to $46 billion for the company Expected in October. The new forecast would still represent a 32% jump in revenue compared to the previous year.
Eli Lilly has been racing to meet growing demand for its diabetes treatment Mounjaro and obesity drug Zepbound, investing billions to boost its capacity to manufacture the company's booming so-called incretin drugs. The efforts appear to be paying off: the Food and Drug Administration in December She reaffirmed her decision To announce the end of the US shortage of tirzepatide – the active ingredient in both drugs.
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said the company has “significant amounts of online exposure” and “that type of growth is likely to continue.”
He also noted that the company will add more manufacturing capacity and expects to produce at least 60% more salable doses of incretin drugs in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2024.
For the fourth quarter, Eli Lilly expects revenue of $13.5 billion. The total includes about $3.5 billion for Mounjaro and $1.9 billion for Zepbound.
Wall Street expected fourth-quarter and full-year revenue to be $13.94 billion and $45.49 billion, respectively, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG.
The lowering of expectations comes at a time when Eli Lilly is competing Novo Nordisk and other smaller competitors for a share of the booming weight-loss and diabetes drug market. Eli Lilly is developing an obesity pill that is more patient-friendly and easier to manufacture Rex expects it to be approved As soon as early next year.
“While the U.S. incretin market grew 45% compared to the same quarter last year, our previous guidance expected a faster acceleration of growth during this quarter. This, combined with lower-than-expected channel inventory at the end of the year, contributed to the lower-than-expected channel inventory at the end of the year,” Rex said in a statement. Our fourth quarter results.
The drugmaker also said it expects sales of $58 billion to $61 billion in fiscal 2025.
Eli Lilly is expected to report its full quarterly results on February 6.
