Eli Lilly LLY has lowered its 2024 revenue outlook for weight loss drugs
The Eli Lilly & Company logo at the company’s Digital Health Innovation Center in Singapore on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024.
Ore Huying | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Eli Lilly He cut his earnings guidance on Tuesday, saying demand for its weight loss and diabetes drugs fell short of high expectations.
The drugmaker’s shares were down more than 7 percent in midday trading on Tuesday.
Eli Lilly now says it expects full-year 2024 revenue of about $45 billion. That was less than the $45.4 billion to $46 billion the company had expected in October. The new outlook still shows a 32 percent jump in revenue from last year.
Eli Lilly is racing to meet the growing demand for diabetes treatment Munjaro and obesity drug Zepboden, and has spent billions to boost the company’s growing capacity to produce incretin drugs. The effort appears to be paying off: The Food and Drug Administration reaffirmed its decision in December to declare the end of the U.S. 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 “tons of offerings online” and “that kind of growth can continue.”
He also pointed out that the company will add additional production capacity and produce at least 60% more salable encore drugs in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2024.
Eli Lilly expects $13.5 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter. The total includes $3.5 billion for Mountjaro and $1.9 billion for Zepbound.
Wall Street had expected fourth-quarter and full-year revenue of $13.94 billion and $45.49 billion, respectively, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG.
Visual reduction comes when Eli Lilly competes. Novo Nordisk and other smaller competitors for weight loss and diabetes drug market share. Eli Lilly is developing an obesity pill that’s more convenient for patients and easier to manufacture, and Ricks expects approval early next year.
“While the US incretin market grew 45 percent compared to the same quarter last year, our prior guidance for the quarter was faster growth. This, in addition to lower-than-expected channel inventory at the end of the year, contributed to our Q4 results,” Ricks said in a statement.
The drugmaker said it expects sales of $58 billion to $61 billion in fiscal 2025.
Eli Lilly is expected to report full quarterly results on February 6.
