Lilly Results Lifted By Higher Volumes, Animal Health--Update

By Chelsey Dulaney 

Eli Lilly & Co. on Thursday lifted its outlook for the year, as the pharmaceutical firm logged better-than-expected revenue and earnings in the second quarter.

Lilly said it now expects profit, excluding special items, to come in at $3.20 a share to $3.30 a share, up from $3.10 a share to $3.20 a share. The company has raised the lower end of its revenue forecast to $19.7 billion to $20 billion, compared with its previous call for $19.5 billion to $20 billion.

Shares of Lilly added 1.8% in premarket trading.

In the latest quarter, Lilly said it was helped by higher prices and an 8% increase in volume for several products, including cancer drug Cyramza and diabetes treatment Trulicity.

Overall, for the period ended June 30, Lilly posted earnings of $600.8 million, or 56 cents a share, down from $733.5 million, or 68 cents a share, in the prior-year period.

Excluding items such as impairment charges, earnings were 90 cents a share, up from 74 cents a share a year earlier.

Revenue inched up to $4.98 billion from $4.94 billion a year earlier.

Analysts had projected a per-share profit of 74 cents and revenue of $4.91 billion.

Animal health revenue grew 40% from the prior year to $840.8 million because of the inclusion of revenue from Novartis Animal Health. Meanwhile, lower demand continued to hit sales of depression drug Cymbalta and osteoporosis treatment Evista, both of which have been hurt by U.S. patent expirations. Cymbalta sales fell 32%, while Evista sales fell 45%.

Lilly, like other pharmaceutical companies, has been hurt recently by a wave of patent expirations, on top of foreign-exchange pressures. But excitement over its experimental Alzheimer's drug has helped lift its stock by 25% this year through Wednesday's close.

On Wednesday, Lilly presented results at a conference showing that people with mild Alzheimer's disease who started taking the experimental drug earlier in the course of their disease fared better than patients who started later in a clinical trial. Lilly is hoping the drug, solanezumab, becomes the first marketed treatment to slow the worsening of the underlying disease.

The new data aren't final proof of the drug's benefit--a separate, continuing study due to end in late 2016 is designed to more definitively test its efficacy and safety.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at [e-mail]

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