Gross sales of Eli Lilly’s new diabetes drug Mounjaro grew strongly within the closing quarter of 2022, the corporate reported Thursday, difficult the market place of competing medicines from rival Novo Nordisk.
Fourth quarter gross sales totaled $279 million, bringing the entire for 2022 to $483 million following the drug’s June launch. The quick gross sales put Mounjaro, accepted to enhance blood sugar management in folks with Kind 2 diabetes, on tempo to shortly attain blockbuster standing. Research have proven the drug to have a strong weight-loss impact as nicely, supporting Lilly’s present efforts to develop the drug’s approval to incorporate weight problems remedy.
But, in an indication of how excessive expectations have risen for Mounjaro, the gross sales Lilly posted have been decrease than what some on Wall Road had predicted. Funding financial institution SVB Securities anticipated fourth quarter gross sales of $370 million, in accordance a shopper notice from analyst David Risinger, and the consensus forecast was $288 million.
Furthermore, charges of U.S. insurance coverage protection solely ticked barely increased to 50% by the top of the fourth quarter, Risinger added.
On an earnings name Thursday, Lilly executives stated the corporate is having hassle maintaining Mounjaro manufacturing excessive sufficient to match affected person demand. Extra manufacturing capability is being added, with a web site in North Carolina anticipated to start out manufacturing someday later this yr, CFO Anat Ashkenazi stated on the decision.
Mounjaro prescription quantity was additionally affected, starting in November, by adjustments to Lilly’s drug financial savings card program. This system is for sufferers who need to take Mounjaro however whose insurers haven’t begun masking it, and permits them to purchase the drugs for $25 a month. Nonetheless, Lilly needed to begin requiring folks to substantiate they’ve Kind 2 diabetes earlier than receiving the low cost, proscribing it from these in search of it as an weight problems remedy, in line with the corporate’s diabetes chief, Michael Mason.
Whereas Mounjaro succeeded in medical trials for weight reduction, the Meals and Drug Administration continues to be reviewing that knowledge forward of an approval determination anticipated later this yr. Lilly must report knowledge from a second examine, known as SURMOUNT-2, earlier than the FDA can full that evaluate.
If the Indianapolis-based firm wins approval in weight problems, it would compete with Novo throughout two metabolic fronts. Mounjaro is the primary once-weekly drug that acts on two completely different peptides concerned in insulin secretion, whereas Novo has a once-weekly shot that acts on a single peptide. Novo additionally sells a day by day capsule.
However inside this class of medicine, presently solely Novo holds an approval as a weight-loss drug, which has helped bolster its enterprise. On Wednesday, Novo reported 83.4 billion Danish kroner, or $12.3 billion, in 2022 diabetes gross sales from its three merchandise on this class and one other $2.5 billion from the 2 merchandise it sells as weight reduction medication.
Novo additionally has run into manufacturing issues, though it was in a position to resume offering all doses of once-weekly weight-loss shot Wegovy in late 2022.
General, the corporate reported $7.3 billion in income in the course of the fourth quarter of 2022, a decline of 9% in comparison with the identical interval in 2021. Gross sales of Lilly’s COVID-19 antibodies, that are now not approved to be used within the U.S., shrank from $1 billion in fourth quarter of 2021 to only $38 million in the identical interval in 2022. Excluding COVID-19 therapies, income rose 5%.
Lilly shares fell 6% in morning buying and selling Thursday.
Editor’s notice: This story has been up to date with further element from Lilly’s fourth quarter earnings report.
