An Eli Lilly & Co. logo is seen on the cap of a pill bottle in this arranged photograph at a pharmacy in Princeton, Illinois.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Eli Lilly raised its 2019 profit forecast after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by the performance of its diabetes drug, Humalog, and a lower tax bill.
The drugmaker is one of the three main providers of insulin products and had agreed earlier this year to offer a half-priced version of its insulin injection Humalog in response to intensifying pressure from politicians to lower drug costs for consumers.
Sales from both versions of the insulin injection fell 2.4% to $648.9 million, but narrowly beat analysts’ average estimate of $645.33 million, according to three analysts polled by Refinitiv.
The drugmaker now expects 2019 adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $5.75 to $5.85, up from the prior range of $5.67 to $5.77.
Net income rose to $1.25 billion, or $1.37 per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $1.15 billion, or $1.12 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, Lilly earned $1.48 per share. Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.41 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Revenue rose 3.2% to $5.48 billion in the quarter but missed Wall Street expectation of $5.50 billion, largely due to flat overall sales in the United States.
Add Comment