Eli Lilly hits $1 trillion market value, first for health care company
A sign with the company logo sits outside Eli Lilly’s headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 17, 2024.
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Eli Lilly It reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion on Friday, becoming the first healthcare company in the world to join the exclusive club dominated by technology companies.
Eli Lilly briefly reached $1 trillion in morning trading before pulling back. It was last traded around $1,048 per share.
The company’s shares are up more than 36% this year as investors applaud gains against its chief rival Novo Nordisk GLP-1 in the pharmaceutical field. Shares of the Indianapolis, Indiana-based drugmaker are soaring in the popularity of its weight-loss injection Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro. Demand is expected to increase as both approvals for use of treatments and insurance coverage expand.
Eli Lilly’s shares have soared thanks to the success of its Mounjaro and Zepbound drugs.
Eli Lilly will likely remain a dominant player in the weight-loss drug market, and some analysts believe that may happen. will be worth more than $150 billion In the early 2030s.
Zepbound, Mounjaro’s runaway success
Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and Union veteran of the U.S. Civil War the company that bears his name In 1876. It has long been at the forefront of diabetes treatment and world’s first commercial insulin In 1923.
Eli Lilly became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in 1952 and relied on a list of widely successful products to provide most of its profits and revenue for decades. They contain insulin, which is an antidepressant pill Prozac And earliest polio vaccine.
Eli Lilly & Co. Zepbound injection pen, March 28, 2024.
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Eli Lilly hit the jackpot with the May 2022 approval of tirzepatide for diabetes, sold as Mounjaro. It began to compete with Novo Nordisk’s diabetes injection Ozempic, which entered the market a few years ago.
But Eli Lilly introduced a new way to treat diabetes and eventually obesity. Tirzepatide works by mimicking two hormones produced in the gut called GLP-1 and GIP. GLP-1 helps reduce food intake and appetite. GIP, which also suppresses appetite, may also improve the way the body breaks down sugar and fat.
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, and the weight-loss drug Wegovy target only GLP-1.
Mounjaro achieved “blockbuster” status in its first year on the market; This means it generates more than $1 billion in annual sales.
Eli Lilly later received approval for tirzepatide, sold as Zepbound, for the treatment of obesity and now competes with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.
