(Bloomberg) — Eli Lilly & Co. reported preliminary fourth-quarter revenue that missed analyst estimates on lower-than-expected sales of its weight-loss and diabetes shots.
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Fourth-quarter sales are expected to be $13.5 billion, Lilly said Tuesday in a statement, below the $14 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Both Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes came in below projections.
Lilly said the market for the shots grew slower than anticipated in the final three months of the year and inventory was lower than anticipated. Other drugs performed within Lilly’s expectations, the company said.
Shares of the Indianapolis-based drugmaker fell as much as 6.5% in New York trading, their biggest slump since Oct. 30. They had gained 32% in 2024.
In an interview at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, Chief Executive Officer Dave Ricks said the drugmaker normally sells more drugs in December, as patients double up on prescriptions ahead of the holidays and deductible resets in January. “But we did not see that,” he said.
“Our guidance relied on a bit of a bump up, which we had seen the last four or five years in December,” Ricks said. “It just didn’t occur.”
Lilly forecast 2025 revenue in the range of $58 billion to $61 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $58.7 billion.
(Updates with company comments starting in third paragraph.)
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