A pharmacist shows packing containers of Ozempic, a semaglutide injection drug used for treating kind 2 diabetes made by Novo Nordisk, at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, on March 29, 2023.
George Frey | Reuters
Eli Lilly on Thursday mentioned supply of its blockbuster diabetes drug Mounjaro has improved in the U.S. after months of widespread shortages.
However, the pharmaceutical large famous that it’s nonetheless working to extend manufacturing capability for the therapy and different medication amid elevated demand.
The remarks recommend that Eli Lilly’s preliminary efforts to increase manufacturing capability for Mounjaro are beginning to repay. Demand for the therapy is hovering, largely attributable to its off-label potential to trigger important weight reduction. U.S. regulators might probably approve the drug for weight reduction this yr, which might push up demand much more.
During an earnings name Thursday, Eli Lilly executives mentioned the corporate skilled tight supply for Mounjaro all through most of the third quarter. Mounjaro raked in $1.4 billion in gross sales for the quarter, serving to the corporate beat expectations on each the highest and backside strains.
But U.S. product shipments of Mounjaro have lately elevated, and stock ranges at U.S. drug wholesalers have improved, in keeping with Eli Lilly Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi.
She famous that every one doses of Mounjaro are actually listed as obtainable on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s scarcity database. Meanwhile, Mounjaro supply stays tight internationally, Ashkenazi added.
Eli Lilly is on monitor to attain its objective of doubling manufacturing capability for medication comparable to Mounjaro and its different diabetes therapy Trulicity, Ashkenazi mentioned. Both medication work by mimicking hormones produced in the intestine known as incretins to suppress an individual’s urge for food and regulate blood sugar.
Ashkenazi pointed to the corporate’s new facility in North Carolina, which is now “on-line” to supply further drug meeting capability. Eli Lilly has additionally invested greater than $3 billion to build two new manufacturing websites in its residence state of Indiana.
But Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks mentioned through the earnings name that the corporate remains to be “aggressively planning” additional manufacturing buildup for Mounjaro and different medication.
He famous that the corporate has been inking third-party manufacturing agreements with a “various portfolio” of contractors, with Eli Lilly “shopping for up as a lot capability as obtainable” in their methods.
“This is de facto all-hands-on-deck,” Ricks mentioned. “It’s an issue we work on day by day. So we’re in no way proud of the capability.”
Eli Lilly’s fundamental rival in the burden loss drug area, Novo Nordisk, remains to be navigating its personal supply constraints of diabetes drug Ozempic and weight problems therapy Wegovy.
Ozempic and Wegovy sparked the burden loss business gold rush final yr, pushing Eli Lilly and different firms comparable to Pfizer to ramp up their investments in the area.
Initial research have advised that Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro could also be much more efficient at lowering weight than Wegovy and Ozempic.
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