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Eli Lilly raised its revenue forecast for 2024, sending its shares soaring, as the world’s biggest drugmaker by market value continues to benefit from bumper sales of its blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs.
The Indianapolis-based company on Thursday increased its full-year sales guidance by $3bn to between $45.4bn and $46.6bn, citing the “strong performance of Mounjaro and Zepbound”, its new class of diabetes and weight loss medicines known as GLP-1s.
Revenue in the second quarter increased 36 per cent year on year to $11bn, while earnings per share rose 68 per cent to $3.28. David Ricks, Eli Lilly’s chief executive, said the sales boost had been led by the GLP-1 drugs as the company “advanced our manufacturing expansion agenda” to meet huge demand for the medicines.
Sales of new products, which include the GLP-1 medicines, rose $3.46bn to $4.46bn. Sales of diabetes drug Mounjaro totalled almost $3.1bn in the second quarter, while revenues from anti-obesity medication Zepbound were $1.24bn.
Eli Lilly’s shares jumped 9 per cent in pre-market trading on Wall Street on Thursday.
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