Covid antibodies helped Eli Lilly score a fourth-quarter beat on Thursday, but Eli Lilly stock dipped on a cloudy future for those drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration recently restricted the use of antibody-based drugs from Lilly and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to patients likely to have been infected by a non-omicron variant. Omicron undoes the effectiveness of these treatments.
Virtually every Covid infection in the U.S. today is due to an omicron exposure. So, while Lilly's drugs dubbed bamlanivimab and etesevimab helped drive the fourth-quarter beat, they "are less important from a long-term perspective," Mizuho Securities analyst Vamil Divan said in a note to clients.
On the stock market today, Eli Lilly stock fell 2.4% to 244.81.
Eli Lilly Stock: Trulicity Outperforms
Overall, sales climbed 8% to nearly $8 billion. That beat Eli Lilly stock analysts' call for $7.69 billion, according to FactSet. Adjusted earnings also increased 8% to $2.49 per share, beating expectations by 4 cents a share.
Cancer drug Verzenio, and diabetes meds Trulicity and Jardiance also beat expectations, Divan said. But sales of Humalog, Cymbalta and Alimta — respectively, treatments for diabetes, depression and cancer — lagged expectations.
"Alimta's weakness is not surprising to us given the entry of generic competition ex-U.S. in Japan and major European markets, and we are expecting further erosion following upcoming generic entry in the U.S. as well," he said.
Eli Lilly noted increased demand in the U.S. for Trulicity, but continued price decline for Humalog as competition mounts. Divan kept his buy rating on Eli Lilly stock.
For the year, Lilly reaffirmed its outlook for adjusted profit of $8.50-$8.65 a share on $27.8 billion to $28.3 billion in sales. Both measures easily beat Eli Lilly stock analysts' call for adjusted profit of $8.50 per share on $28.01 billion in sales.
Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.
