August 8, 2024
A Financial Times article reported that…
“Eli Lilly chief executive David Ricks said the better than expected sales in its most recent quarter were driven by the GLP-1 medicines as the drugmaker “advanced our manufacturing expansion agenda” to meet the huge demand for the medicines. Increased pricing power for Mounjaro also boosted revenues, the company said. Sales of new products, which include the GLP-1 medicines, rose $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion. Sales of diabetes drug Mounjaro totalled $3.1bn in the second quarter, while revenues from anti-obesity medication Zepbound reached $1.2 billion.
Last week, four different doses of Mounjaro and Zepbound were removed from a US Food and Drug Administration database tracking drug shortages in a sign that supply constraints have eased. The medicines were listed as “available”, but still remain on the agency’s shortages list. Rival weight loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which manufactures diabetes drug Ozempic and its anti-obesity offshoot Wegovy, on Wednesday reported second-quarter sales that were slightly below analysts’ expectations. That provoked concerns from investors that it was being outmanoeuvred by Eli Lilly in the race to boost manufacturing capacity,