BIG PHARMA EARNINGS WATCH: ELI LILLY, NOVO NORDISK, ABBVIE, AMGEN, GLAXOSMITHKLINE AND PFIZER

May 6, 2024

Repeated Price Hikes and Egregious Prices on GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs Boost Profits for Big Pharma Giants at the Expense of American Patients

Over the last week, several Big Pharma companies reported earnings that continued to outpace Wall Street expectations for the first quarter, driven by the brand name drug companies’ egregious anti-competitive practices and price-gouging of American patients.

Big Pharma giants including Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, AbbVie, Amgen, GSK and Pfizer all reported strong earnings for the quarter — after all six started 2024 with price hikes on brand name drugs in their portfolio.

Eli Lilly

  • Eli Lilly topped Wall Street analysts’ earnings expectations for the first quarter, posting revenue of $8.77 billion, up 26 percent year over year.
  • The company’s egregiously priced GLP-1 diabetes and weight loss drugs drove the strong earnings report.
  • Zepbound, one of the company’s GLP-1 products, and which regulators predict could become the “biggest drug of all time,” brought in $517 million, up from $175 million last quarter.
  • Mounjaro, another GLP-1 drug, brought in $1.81 billion, up from $568 million in the first quarter of last year.
  • Meanwhile, Trulicity, another GLP-1 product brought in $1.46 billion.
  • Eli Lilly’s earnings report was so strong, in fact, that the company increased its revenue forecast for the year by $2 billion.

Novo Nordisk

  • Novo Nordisk recorded $3.65 billion in profit in the quarter, above Wall Street expectations.
  • The Big Pharma giant reported first quarter sales of $9.3 billion.
  • Sales of the company’s blockbuster GLP-1 drug Wegovy more than doubled in the quarter, to $1.3 billion.
  • Sales of Ozempic, another of the company’s GLP-1 drugs rose a whopping 42 percent to $3.99 billion.
  • Novo Nordisk also increased its guidance for the year.

AbbVie

  • AbbVie reported first quarter earnings that topped Wall Street expectations.
  • The company reported revenue of $12.31 billion in the quarter.
  • AbbVie’s immunology portfolio performed strongly, with blockbuster drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq bringing in massive profits.
  • Skyrizi brought in $2 billion for the company while Rinvoq brought in $1.1 billion.
  • Despite facing competition from biosimilars, AbbVie’s blockbuster arthritis drug Humira still brought in a whopping $2.3 billion.

Amgen

  • Amgen reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations and revenue was in line with estimates, at $7.4 billion.
  • Amgen’s cholesterol drug Repatha brought in $517 million.
  • Autoimmune drugs Enbrel and Otezla brought in $567 million and $394 million, respectively.
  • Amgen’s shares “surged” after earnings after executives provided positive news on a prospective weight loss drug called MariTide, which some analysts expect could compete with other weight loss drugs including Ozempic and Wegovy.

GlaxoSmithKline

  • GlaxoSmithKline reported profit and earnings that beat Wall Street estimates for the first quarter.
  • The company brought in $9.18 billion in sales.
  • GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines division performed well, with shingles vaccine Shingrix delivering $1.2 billion and RSV vaccine Arexvy bringing in another $227 million.

Pfizer

  • Pfizer topped Wall Street earnings and revenue expectations for Q1.
  • The pharmaceutical giant posted revenue of $14.88 billion.
  • Excluding Covid products, revenue grew 11 percent in the quarter.
  • Strong performers included blood thinner Eliquis, which brought in $2.04 billion, and Vyndaqel, a drug that treats cardiomyopathy, which brought in an additional $1.14 billion.
  • Pfizer’s RSV vaccine Abrysvo brought in $145 million.

The strong earnings reports for the Big Pharma companies follow price hikes across the companies’ portfolios earlier this year – as well examples of engaging in anti-competitive tactics to block competition from cheaper alternatives and keep prices high. GSK and Pfizer, for example, recently worked to increase prices in lockstep on new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines before they were even widely available to patients.

Eli Lilly

  • Eli Lilly has hiked prices on 10 prescription drugs thus far in 2024, including oncology drug Verzenio by six percent, as well as best-selling diabetes drugs Trulicity and Mounjaro by five percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.
  • Eli Lilly started 2023 by raising prices on 16 prescription drugs, including blockbuster diabetes drugs Trulicity and Mounjaro, both by five percent. Eli Lilly also hiked the price of its best-selling oncology drug Verzenio by 5 percent.
  • Last summer, Eli Lilly hiked the price of its blockbuster cancer drug, Cyramza, by two percent.
  • The company began 2022 with more than a dozen price hikes, including another five percent increase on Trulicity.
  • In the summer of 2022, Eli Lilly increased the price of its COVID-19 antibody treatment by an estimated 14 percent as coverage shifted to the commercial market from the U.S. government.

Novo Nordisk

  • Novo Nordisk has hiked prices on 10 prescription drugs thus far in 2024, including a 3.5 percent increase on blockbuster weight loss drug Ozempic.
  • In 2023, Novo Nordisk hiked prices on 11 prescriptions drugs, including a 4.9 percent increase on their best-selling GLP-1 drug Ozempic.
  • In 2022, Novo Nordisk increased prices on 10 prescriptions drugs, including a 4.8 percent increase on weight loss and diabetes drug Ozempic.

AbbVie

  • AbbVie increased prices on 16 prescription drugs to start the year, including a 5.8 percent price increase on Skyrizi and 5 percent price hike on Rinvoq.
  • AbbVie hiked prices on 40 prescription drugs in January 2023, including eight percent increases each on the company’s blockbuster autoimmune drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq.
  • This past July, AbbVie again increased the price of plaque psoriasis drug Skyrizi by four percent.
  • In 2022, AbbVie increased prices on more than 40 prescription drugs.
  • In 2021, the company launched almost 50 price increases across its portfolio.

Amgen

  • Amgen has raised prices on at least 23 prescription drugs so far this year, including five percent price increases on autoimmune drugs Enbrel and Otezla.
  • Amgen started 2023 by raising prices on more than 20 prescription drugs, including on autoimmune drug Otezla by 7.4 percent.
  • Amgen hiked prices on 33 prescriptions in 2022, including a four percent increase on popular autoimmune drug Enbrel.
  • A recent U.S. House Committee on Oversight report found that Amgen hiked prices of blockbuster drugs Enbrel and Sensipar to meet revenue targets.

GSK

 Pfizer

GlaxoSmithKline’s & Pfixer’s RSV Vaccine Price Hike Scheme

  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two RSV vaccines for older Americans last May, GSK’s Arexvy and Pfizer’s Abrysvo.
  • Ahead of Arexvy’s approval, GSK said it anticipated pricing the shot somewhere between $60 and $185. Immediately following FDA approval, GSK indicated their price would land in the higher end of the range, above $120.
  • Then, as Pfizer shared a price range of $180 to $270 with advisors for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), GSK shared a new range, increasing their projected price to be between $200 and $295 — despite indicating a high-end of $185 just weeks before.
  • At the CDC advisor meeting, Pfizer also hinted at further increases to the price of their shot by refusing to even commit to staying within the range they offered. “Among other concerns, some of the committee members were unhappy that Pfizer would not commit to a price for its vaccine,” CNN reported.

Read about Novartis, Merck, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi’s Q1 earnings HERE.

Read about Johnson & Johnson’s first quarter earnings beat HERE.

Read more on GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer’s RSV vaccine price hike scheme HERE.

Read more about Big Pharma is increasingly bringing its insulin price-gouging playbook to new weight loss drugs HERE.

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