Zepbound Sales Miss Wall Street Expectations

Sales of Eli Lilly's (LLY-13.34%) Blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound is still booming, but not at the levels Wall Street expected.

The pharmaceutical giant released its third-quarter results on Wednesday morning and reported sales figures that were well below analysts' expectations. This caused the company's shares to fall more than 13% in Wednesday morning trading.

“Lilly experienced another strong quarter of growth in the third quarter, with total revenue increasing 42% after excluding divestiture activity during the same period last year,” Eli Lilly CEO David A. Ricks said in a statement Press release. “While the growth of Mounjaro and Zepbound is impressive, we are equally proud of the 17% growth in non-incretin sales, which include our oncology, immunology and neuroscience portfolios, compared to the third quarter of 2023 on the same basis.”

According to a consensus estimate from FactSet (FDS-0.03%).

Sales of the company's diabetes drug Mounjaro rose more than 120% to $3.1 billion in the third quarter, compared to $1.4 billion in the same period last year. However, the drug also fell short of Wall Street expectations, which called for sales of nearly $3.8 billion.

Zepbound and Mounjaro belong to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 drugs. These drugs mimic a hormone that regulates appetite and blood sugar and have become popular in treating obesity and type 2 diabetes. Demand for these drugs has driven Eli Lilly and its rival Novo Nordisk (NVO-3.86%), the manufacturer of the competing drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, in the largest pharmaceutical company in the world.

Because of her high selling price Due to the rapidly increasing demand, many patients had difficulty getting their medication Hands on these treatments.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are both currently working on it increase their production of these drugs and to curb the sale of these drugs cheaper off-brand versions of their popular GLP-1 treatments.