BIG PHARMA EARNINGS WATCH: ELI LILLY & AMGEN

Price Hikes and Egregious Prices on Blockbuster Drugs Boost Profits for Big Pharma Giants

Earlier this month, Big Pharma rounded out earnings calls for the second quarter of the year. Both Eli Lilly and Amgen reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations driven by price hikes on the companies’ blockbuster brand name drugs, including Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug Mounjaro and Amgen’s autoimmune drugs Enbrel and Otezla. Both companies started the year by hiking prices on over 40 prescription products across their portfolios combined.

Eli Lilly

• Eli Lilly reported second quarter earnings that “blew past” Wall Street analysts’ expectations.
• The Big Pharma giant posted overall sales of $11.3 billion, up 36 percent year over year.
• The company’s GLP-1 drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro earned $1.2 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively.
• Eli Lilly raised its full-year earnings and revenue projections, thanks to massive sales of its GLP-1 drugs.

Amgen

• Amgen beat Wall Street expectations, bringing in $8.39 billion in revenue for the quarter.
• The company’s osteoporosis treatment Prolia brought in $1.17 billion in Q2, up 13 percent.
• Additionally, Amgen’s cholesterol drug Repatha earned $532 million, a 25 percent increase year-over-year.
• Thanks to a strong quarter, the Big Pharma giant raised its sales outlook for the year.

The strong earnings reports for both Big Pharma companies follow price hikes across their portfolios earlier this year.

Eli Lilly

• Eli Lilly has hiked prices on 9 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.

Amgen

• Amgen has raised prices on at least 32 prescription drugs so far this year, including a 6.9 percent increase on osteoporosis treatment Prolia as well as five percent price increases on autoimmune drugs Enbrel and Otezla.
• Amgen started 2023 by raising prices on more than 20 prescription drugs, including on osteoporosis treatment Prolia by 5.9 percent as well as 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.

Read more about Novartis and Johnson & Johnson’s Wall Street topping Q2 earnings HERE.

Read more about Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Roche, and AbbVie’s Q2 earnings HERE.

Read more about GSK, Pfizer, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb’s strong second quarter performance HERE.

Learn more about solutions to lower prescription drug prices and hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.