Latest news with #BhanviSatija
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Eli Lilly's strong quarter undercut by CVS move to drop Zepbound coverage
By Bhanvi Satija and Patrick Wingrove (Reuters) -Eli Lilly on Thursday posted better-than-expected quarterly results, but CVS Health's decision to drop the company's obesity drug Zepbound from the list of medicines it covers for reimbursement dragged shares down over 5%. CVS said its pharmacy benefit management unit, which is the largest in the U.S., would drop Zepbound coverage from July 1, but keep reimbursing for rival GLP-1 weight-loss drug Wegovy after negotiating a more favorable price from Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk. The success of Lilly's diabetes and weight-loss treatments has led the Indianapolis-based drugmaker to become the world's most valuable healthcare company, with a market value of more than $800 billion. "The battle between Novo and Lilly is clearly adding meaningful price pressure" to the GLP-1 medicines, said Bernstein analyst Courtney Breen, adding that patients and doctors have shown preference toward Zepbound. Lilly said lower prices for Zepbound trimmed revenue in the quarter, but that demand remained strong. Sales of the drug came in at $2.31 billion for the first quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.33 billion, according to LSEG data. In February, Lilly cut the price for vials of Zepbound by $50 or more and expanded the range of doses it sold online to address competition from compounding pharmacies and Novo. It now offers the two lowest doses of Zepbound for $349 and $499 for a month's supply. Weekly U.S. prescriptions of Wegovy have plateaued since mid-February, according to IQVIA data provided by analysts, with Zepbound prescriptions overtaking Novo's obesity drug by more than 127,000 for the week ending April 18. Lilly said it had captured about 53.3% of the U.S. market share. "There's always the risk of a price competition when your competitor Novo Nordisk is frankly not doing enough with its pipeline. So they may try to get a bit too aggressive on pricing just to maintain market share," said Kevin Gade, portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor, which owns Lilly shares. Sales of Lilly's diabetes drug Mounjaro, which has the same active ingredient as Zepbound, were $3.84 billion, exceeding analysts' estimates of $3.80 billion. Lilly cut its full-year adjusted profit forecast to between $20.78 and $22.28 per share, from its previous view of $22.50 to $24.00 per share, citing deal charges. The drugmaker said its forecast is based on "the existing tariff and trade environment," and did not quantify any impact from potential tariffs. Lilly, like Novartis and Johnson & Johnson, has committed to increasing its U.S. manufacturing presence, pledging to spend at least $27 billion as the threat of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump looms over the sector. On an adjusted basis, Lilly earned $3.34 per share for the quarter, topping analysts' estimates by 32 cents. Total revenue for the period was $12.73 billion, above Wall Street expectations of $12.67 billion. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Eli Lilly's strong quarter undercut by CVS move to drop Zepbound coverage
By Bhanvi Satija and Patrick Wingrove (Reuters) -Eli Lilly on Thursday posted better-than-expected quarterly results, but CVS Health's decision to drop the company's obesity drug Zepbound from the list of medicines it covers for reimbursement dragged shares down over 5%. CVS said its pharmacy benefit management unit, which is the largest in the U.S., would drop Zepbound coverage from July 1, but keep reimbursing for rival GLP-1 weight-loss drug Wegovy after negotiating a more favorable price from Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk. The success of Lilly's diabetes and weight-loss treatments has led the Indianapolis-based drugmaker to become the world's most valuable healthcare company, with a market value of more than $800 billion. "The battle between Novo and Lilly is clearly adding meaningful price pressure" to the GLP-1 medicines, said Bernstein analyst Courtney Breen, adding that patients and doctors have shown preference toward Zepbound. Lilly said lower prices for Zepbound trimmed revenue in the quarter, but that demand remained strong. Sales of the drug came in at $2.31 billion for the first quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.33 billion, according to LSEG data. In February, Lilly cut the price for vials of Zepbound by $50 or more and expanded the range of doses it sold online to address competition from compounding pharmacies and Novo. It now offers the two lowest doses of Zepbound for $349 and $499 for a month's supply. Weekly U.S. prescriptions of Wegovy have plateaued since mid-February, according to IQVIA data provided by analysts, with Zepbound prescriptions overtaking Novo's obesity drug by more than 127,000 for the week ending April 18. Lilly said it had captured about 53.3% of the U.S. market share. "There's always the risk of a price competition when your competitor Novo Nordisk is frankly not doing enough with its pipeline. So they may try to get a bit too aggressive on pricing just to maintain market share," said Kevin Gade, portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor, which owns Lilly shares. Sales of Lilly's diabetes drug Mounjaro, which has the same active ingredient as Zepbound, were $3.84 billion, exceeding analysts' estimates of $3.80 billion. Lilly cut its full-year adjusted profit forecast to between $20.78 and $22.28 per share, from its previous view of $22.50 to $24.00 per share, citing deal charges. The drugmaker said its forecast is based on "the existing tariff and trade environment," and did not quantify any impact from potential tariffs. Lilly, like Novartis and Johnson & Johnson, has committed to increasing its U.S. manufacturing presence, pledging to spend at least $27 billion as the threat of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump looms over the sector. On an adjusted basis, Lilly earned $3.34 per share for the quarter, topping analysts' estimates by 32 cents. Total revenue for the period was $12.73 billion, above Wall Street expectations of $12.67 billion.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Novartis to buy kidney disease drug maker Regulus in up to $1.7 billion deal
By Bhanvi Satija and Mariam Sunny (Reuters) -Novartis has agreed to buy Regulus Therapeutics for up to $1.7 billion, giving the Swiss drugmaker access to an experimental drug to treat a life-threatening kidney disease. Under the deal terms, Novartis will pay $7 per share in cash upfront, or about $800 million, and another $7 per share to Regulus shareholders if the lead drug candidate, farabursen, gets regulatory approval, the California-based biotech said on Wednesday. The offer represents a premium of about 108% to the stock's last closing price. Shares of Regulus more than doubled to $7.8. The deal, expected to bolster Novartis' lineup of kidney disease drugs in development, will also give the company access to Regulus' proprietary platform to develop treatments targeting a type of genetic material called microRNAs. Regulus' drug, farabursen, is expected to enter a late-stage study this year to test it for the treatment of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, which causes fluid-filled cysts in the organ. The deal is a "sensible bolt-on" for Novartis, said Barclays analyst Emily Field. Farabursen is a potential improvement over poorly tolerated standard-of-care therapy, tolvaptan, Field said. Otsuka Pharmaceutical's tolvaptan is the only treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the country for the condition, but it carries the risk of potentially fatal liver injury. Novartis has recently received U.S. approvals for its drugs Fabhalta and Vanrafia for the treatment of different types of kidney disorders. It had bought Chinook Therapeutics for $3.5 billion in 2023 for its candidate to treat a rare kidney disease. Its agreement with Regulus comes when policy and regulatory changes for the healthcare sector in the U.S. have been stalling large lifescience deals in what was initially expected to be a stellar year for mergers and acquisitions. Novartis said on Tuesday it expects adjusted earnings to grow by "a low double-digit" percentage in 2025. Sign in to access your portfolio
Zawya
17-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Lilly pill leads to 7.9% weight loss in late-stage trial, shares jump
Eli Lilly said on Thursday its experimental pill, orforglipron, led to a weight loss of nearly 8% at the highest dose and lowered blood sugar for overweight patients with type 2 diabetes in a late-stage trial. Shares of the company jumped nearly 13% in premarket trading. Lilly, which has already begun stockpiling supplies of the pill, said it plans to file for approval to global regulators by the end of this year. The company currently sells injectable tirzepatide -- the active ingredient in diabetes drug Mounjaro and obesity treatment Zepbound -- which mimics natural peptide hormones GLP-1 and GIP. Orforglipron also targets GLP-1, but unlike hormone-mimicking peptides, which also include Novo Nordisk's injected Ozempic and Wegovy, it is a synthetic small molecule drug that can be taken orally. (Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru and Deena Beasley; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Sriraj Kalluvila)
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
J&J beats Wall Street quarterly sales and profit estimates on cancer drug sales
By Patrick Wingrove and Bhanvi Satija (Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) on Tuesday reported first-quarter revenue and profit above Wall Street estimates, driven again by strong sales of its cancer treatments including multiple myeloma medicine Darzalex. J&J's quarterly sales stood at $21.89 billion, up 2.4% from a year ago and above analysts' expectations of $21.56 billion, according to LSEG data. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $2.77 per share in the quarter, 2.2% higher than the previous year and above analysts' estimates of $2.59 per share. Quarterly sales for the company's innovative medicines unit rose 2.3% to $13.87 billion, beating analyst expectations of $13.43 billion, while quarterly medtech revenue stood at $8.02 billion, up 2.5% on the previous year but below Wall Street estimates of $8.17 billion. J&J Chief Financial Officer Joe Wolk said in an interview that the company still expected, as indicated in its January guidance, that its medtech business would perform better in the second half of the year. Innovative medicine revenue was buttressed by a 20% increase in Darzalex sales on the previous year. Darzalex, a blood cancer therapy launched in 2015, brought in first-quarter sales of $3.24 billion, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.05 billion. The company's cancer cell therapy Carvykti, which it makes in partnership with Legend Biotech, brought in sales of $369 million, above estimates of $324 million. Quarterly sales of J&J's cancer drugs rose nearly 18% worldwide to $5.68 billion. Sales of the drugmaker's blockbuster psoriasis treatment Stelara fell more than 33% to $1.63 billion in the first quarter, although beating estimates of $1.42 billion, according to LSEG data. Close copies of Stelara launched in Europe, Canada and few other markets last year, while biosimilar rivals in the U.S. launched this year. J&J also raised its annual sales forecast by $700 million at the midpoint while lowering its profit outlook, saying it reflects the impact of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and dilution from its $14.6 billion deal to buy neurological drugmaker Intra-Cellular. The company now expects sales of $91.6 billion to $92.4 billion, compared to its previous forecast of $90.9 billion and $91.7 billion, driven by its purchase of Intra-Cellular's top schizophrenia drug Caplyta. J&J expects to earn $10.50 to $10.70 per share on an adjusted basis compared to its previous guidance of $10.75 to $10.95. Wolk said the profit adjustment takes account of around $400 million that is expected to be incurred in J&J's medtech business due to tariffs currently in place, including those on China and Mexico. "That is more of a second quarter (and) forward event ... and covers all the programs in place today even if paused," he said. Sign in to access your portfolio
