(Reuters) -Eli Lilly missed Wall Street estimates for its popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs on Wednesday, hit by a decrease in U.S. wholesale inventory and sending its shares down 9% premarket.
U.S. sales of Mounjaro and Zepbound decreased by mid-single digits due to the inventory changes, the company said.
Lilly’s shares are up 55% so far this year and the company has become the most valuable healthcare company in the world, as investors bet on the success of the weight-loss drug.
The company also missed third-quarter profit estimates due to higher manufacturing costs and a previously disclosed $2.8 billion acquisition-related charge.
Quarterly sales of diabetes treatment Mounjaro came in at $3.11 billion, while those of weight-loss drug Zepbound were $1.26 billion, which Lilly said reflected continued strong demand.
Lilly’s drug is sold under the brand name Mounjaro for both diabetes and weight-loss outside of the U.S.
Analysts had on average predicted sales of $4.20 billion for Mounjaro and $1.69 billion for Zepbound for the quarter. They expect the drugs to make a combined $19 billion this year.
Lilly and Danish rival Novo Nordisk are racing to increase capacity and meet unprecedented demand for their popular weight-loss drugs, a market that some analysts estimate could reach $150 billion in revenue by the next decade. Analysts expect the two companies will likely split the U.S. market roughly 50-50 by the end of 2024.
Lilly has invested billions of dollars to expand production of Mounjaro and Zepbound, both known chemically as tirzepatide, including about $7 billion in its Indiana site and facilities in Ireland.
Lilly also trimmed the upper end of its full-year sales forecast by $600 million to $46 billion. It maintained the lower end at $45.4 billion.
In August, rival Novo had trimmed its full-year profit forecast and reported a rare miss on quarterly sales of its weight-loss drug Wegovy.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
