2023-11-04 18:18:00
Weight loss drugs have shaken stocks across industries in recent months, and now the numbers show the hype is real.
Sales of Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro, which is expected to soon be approved for obesity in the United States, reached $1.41 billion in the third quarter, up more than 650 percent from a year ago and very above analysts’ expectations.
Novo Nordisk A/S’s weight-loss drug Wegovy hit $1.37 billion, up 734 percent from a year ago, surpassing what analysts had predicted.
Revenue for both companies soared nearly 40 percent in the quarter.
Shortage of weight loss drugs in the US
Novo and Lilly have struggled to keep up with growing demand. Mounjaro and Wegovy have had shortages in the United States over the past year, and Novo said he would continue to limit certain doses of his drug over the next year.
Lilly CFO Anat Ashkenazi said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday that Mounjaro’s supply situation will remain an issue for “quite some time.” And that’s even before it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a weight-loss treatment.
Maintaining an ample supply of the drug will be key for Lilly as nothing comes close to “matching the importance of Mounjaro to the company’s near-term earnings,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Sam Fazeli and John Murphy said before they were released. the company’s results.
As money for COVID treatments and vaccines has dried up, investor attention and enthusiasm has shifted to obesity drugs. Shares of Lilly and Novo have each risen more than 50 percent this year. Rivals are also trying to enter the market: Pfizer and Amgen, for example, are developing their own weight-loss treatments.
And this might be just the beginning. Research is beginning to show other possible benefits of these treatments for heart and kidney disease.
Weight Loss Medications Work to Reduce Side Effects
Meanwhile, Lilly is testing whether a higher dose of Mounjaro will allow her to lose even more pounds. Both drugmakers are also testing their treatments in combination with others to see if they achieve better results and reduce unwanted side effects.
Novo raised its full-year sales and profit outlook for the third time this year, saying operating profits may rise as much as 46 percent on Wegovy and Ozempic sales. Ozempic is a lower-dose version of Wegovy that is only approved for diabetes but is often used for weight loss. Its sales reached $3.4 billion, 56 percent more than last year.
Mounjaro’s strength overshadowed other problems for Lilly, which did not change its full-year revenue guidance.
“Unfortunately, most of Lilly’s products fell short of Street expectations as U.S. pricing, excluding favorable dynamics tied to Mounjaro, fell by single digits,” said Lee Brown, senior healthcare analyst. from Third Bridge, in an email.
So far, the weight-loss craze appears to be primarily an American phenomenon: 90 percent of Lilly’s $1.4 billion in Mounjaro sales came from the United States. About 95 percent of Novo’s sales on Wegovy are also made in the United States
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