Lilly has issued lower than anticipated financial guidance for 2016, with projected profits and revenues below analysts’ expectations.
The company predicts sales of $20.2 billion to $20 billion for the year, which is below estimates of $21.36 billion from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. It also expects adjusted earnings per-share of $3.45 to $3.55, which is below the $3.65 predicted by analysts.
“Lilly continues to deliver on our financial commitments while advancing our pipeline and launching new medicines,” said John Lechleiter, Lilly’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We enter 2016 in a position of strength anticipating continued growth. Our goal is to sustain the flow of valuable medicines from our pipeline to improve patients’ lives and create value for shareholders.”
Shares in the company have risen, however, thanks to its promising drug pipeline. This includes Alzheimer’s treatment solanezumab – expected to see late-stage trial results in the fourth quarter – and diabetes drug Jardiance (empagliflozin).
Earlier this week Lilly said that Jardiance had begun taking market share from rival drugs including Johnson & Johnson’s Invokana (canagliflozin) and AstraZeneca’s Farxiga (dapagliflozin) and now accounts for 25 percent of new US patients taking SGLT2 inhibitors. This is up from 15 percent from before trial results were released in August showing that the drug cut deaths by 32 percent in Type 2 diabetes patients.
