(Reuters) -Eli Lilly on Thursday cut its full-year adjusted earnings outlook owing to charges related to its recent acquisitions, even as its popular diabetes drug Mounjaro brought in a billion dollars in quarterly sales.
Mounjaro, currently approved for diabetes, has been in high demand since its U.S. launch last year. The drug, known chemically as tirzepatide, is expected to be approved for use in weight loss by the end of this year.
Lilly, now the world’s most valuable healthcare company by market capitalization, has seen its shares gain over 60% this year, fuelled by investor bets on Mounjaro’s success.
Shares of the U.S. drugmaker, which were up about 3% in premarket hours before the results, reversed course to decline about 2%.
Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk are ahead in the race to grab a slice of an estimated $100 billion market for new generation obesity treatments known as GLP-1 agonists.
Mounjaro’s third-quarter sales rose to $1.41 billion, beating analysts’ average estimates of $1.31 billion.
However, Lilly flagged that it experienced delays in fulfilling orders of certain Mounjaro doses due to high demand during the quarter.
The company now expects annual adjusted profit in the range of $6.50 to $6.70 per share, compared with its prior forecast of $9.70 to $9.90, to reflect charges in the quarter.
Lilly has been bolstering its pipeline through small deals, and had previously disclosed it expects to record a pre-tax charge of $2.98 billion, related to its recent acquisitions.
The company reported quarterly revenue of about $9.50 billion, compared with analysts’ average expectation of $8.95 billion, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
