Everyone is talking about Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic. Now, the drugs are poised to go from conversation starters to profit makers.
In the year since announced trial results showing that tirzepatide—best known by the brand name Mounjaro—helped patients drop more than 20% of their weight, the drug has become the most talked about, and most hyped, pharmaceutical in recent memory.
In the year sinceannounced trial results showing that tirzepatide—best known by the brand name Mounjaro—helped patients drop more than 20% of their weight, the drug has become the most talked about, and most hyped, pharmaceutical in recent memory.
In recent months, Lilly’s (ticker: LLY) drug, and a similar one from (NVO), have joined the pantheon of culture-reshaping pharmaceuticals that includes the birth control pill, antidepressant Prozac, and erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. Lilly and Novo shares, meanwhile, have soared. Each company now has a market value of around $400 billion, making them the second- and third-largest in all of Big Pharma. That’s a neat trick given that their revenue is about 25% to 30% of that of industry leader (JNJ), which has a market cap of $425 billion.