Shares in Eli Lilly and Co fell 6.4% after the drugmaker said sales of its Mounjaro and Zepbound weight-loss medications grew more slowly than it had expected.
CEO David Ricks said the US market for incretins – the drugs that target hormones in the gut – grew at 45% compared to the same quarter last year but the company's previous guidance had anticipated an "even faster acceleration".https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lilly-provides-update-2024-revenue-guidance-announces-2025
Combined with lower-than-expected inventory of these tirzepatide-based drugs at year-end, this led to fourth-quarter revenue coming in lower than forecast.
"We continued to make progress on our manufacturing build-out, and US supply across all doses of tirzepatide was available throughout Q4," Ricks said, adding that the rest of Lilly's medicines performed within expected guidance.
For Q4, Lilly said it now expects worldwide revenue to have grown 45% to roughly $13.5 billion, including about $3.5 billion from Mounjaro and $1.9 billion for Zepbound.
Full-year 2024 revenue came to around $45 billion, which was below the bottom of the range of $45.4 billion to $46.0 billion given at the third quarter results.
At that October earnings call, the company had guided to reported EPS in a range of $12.05 to $12.55, and non-GAAP EPS guidance of $13.02 to $13.52.