April 30 (Reuters) – Eli Lilly raised its annual profit and revenue forecasts and posted better-than-expected first quarter on Thursday, on steady demand for its weight-loss and diabetes drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro, in its first results since launching oral GLP-1 pill Foundayo.
Investor expectations for Lilly are anchored around whether the U.S. drugmaker can keep translating demand for its obesity and diabetes drugs into revenue while navigating lower prices, government deals and the rollout of its weight-loss pill.
Lilly competes with Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk in the lucrative market for these treatments, known as GLP-1 agonists, which is expected to cross $150 billion in revenue in the next decade.
“volume growth of its incretins franchise despite entry of Novo’s Wegovy pill was the biggest question on the Street and proof of continued momentum checks investor score cards,” Citi analysts said in a note.
Shares of the Indianapolis-based company rose roughly 7% in premarket trading.
Lilly expects to earn $35.50 to $37.00 per share on an adjusted basis in 2026, compared to its prior view of $33.50 to $35 per share. Analysts were expecting a profit of $34.55 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The U.S. drugmaker reported adjusted profit of $8.55 per share for the first quarer, way ahead of expectations of $6.66. This was primarily driven by an increase in volume in its U.S. and international markets, which helped offset lower realized prices, the company said.
Lilly and Novo struck agreements with the Trump administration in November to lower U.S. prices of their GLP-1 obesity drugs.
Sales of Mounjaro stood at $8.7 billion, beating expectations by more than $1 billion. Weight-loss treatment Zepbound clocked in sales of $4.2 billion, also ahead of estimates.
“The international Mounjaro sales drove this impressive top-line beat, with Lilly taking over Novo as the market share leader for GLP-1s in these ex-US markets,” said Lilly investor Terence McManus of Bellevue Asset Management in Zurich.
INVESTOR FOCUS ON FOUNDAYO Lilly’s once-daily oral weight-loss drug, Foundayo, was launched earlier this month and was prescribed 3,707 times in the U.S. in the week ended April 17, below analysts’ expectations closer to around 8,000. Investors are closely watching the rollout as a key test of whether Lilly can gain market share from rival Novo, which has had a first-mover advantage in the oral weight-loss drug market.
The company said the U.S. launch was off to a strong start, and that more than 12 major telehealth firms were offering Foundayo, accounting for about 35% of launch volume.
CEO David Ricks said he expects Foundayo to expand the number of people who can benefit from GLP-1s.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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