Diabetes and obesity drugs fuel Eli Lilly profit in the final quarter of 2024

Eli Lilly's profit doubled in the fourth quarter, propelled by its hot-selling diabetes and obesity treatments, and the drugmaker came out with a mostly better-than-expected 2025 forecast.

Sales of Lilly's top-selling product, the diabetes treatment Mounjaro, jumped 60% to $3.53 billion in the final quarter of 2024 while its obesity treatment counterpart Zepbound brought in $1.9 billion. Both figures fell short of expectations on Wall Street but reflect a forecast Lilly made last month.

Revenue from the breast cancer treatment Verzenio also helped in the fourth quarter, climbing 36% to $1.55 billion.

Overall, Lilly's quarterly profit swelled to $4.41 billion. Revenue advanced 45% to $13.53 billion, in line with expectations. Per-share earnings adjusted for one-time items totaled $5.32, easily topping the $5.01 that Wall Street was looking for, according to a poll of industry analysts by FactSet.

Mounjaro and Zepbound are part of a wave of diabetes and obesity medications known as GLP-1 receptor agonists that are soaring in popularity globally due to the amount of weight people lose while taking the injections. They compete with Ozempic and Wegovy from the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which also reported strong sales growth on Wednesday.

For 2024, Mounjaro sales more than doubled to $11.54 billion, while Zepbound notched sales of $4.9 billion in its first full year on the market.

Analysts expect more than $18 billion in sales from Mounjaro this year and over $10 billion from Zepbound, which was recently approved in the United States as a treatment for some forms of sleep apnea.

Additional approvals like that and Lilly's push to increase manufacturing should lead to ongoing, solid growth for the drugs, Edward Jones analyst John Boylan said in a research note.

For 2025, the Indianapolis drugmaker expects adjusted earnings to range between $22.50 and $24 with revenue falling between $58 billion and $61 billion.

Analysts expect earnings of $22.77 per share on $58.8 billion in revenue.

Eli Lilly and Co. shares climbed about 2% Thursday morning to $857.40 while broader trading indexes started the day mixed.

Lilly's stock has already climbed 9% so far this year, as of Wednesday.