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The market for obesity and diabetes treatments remains very hot, generating billions of dollars in sales Eli Lilly And another is fueling a bidding war on the drugmaker.
Lilly said Thursday that its best-selling drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound combined to raise more than $10 billion during their recently completed third quarter. That was more than half of the drugmaker’s total sales of $17.6 billion.
Separately, the Danish drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk Announced plans to buy Metsera Inc. in a deal that could be worth up to $9 billion.
This comes more than a month after the US drugmaker Pfizer Inc. Bid about $5 billion for Metsera, which has no drugs on the market but is developing several potential oral and injectable treatments.
Popular treatments called GLP-1 receptor agonists are driving rising sales and interest in the deal. They work by mimicking hormones in the gut and brain to regulate feelings of hunger and fullness. But they don’t work for everyone and can cause side effects that include nausea and stomach pain.
The supply of drugs has improved this year, and some insurance coverage is increasing. This helps improve access to medications that can cost about $500 a month without coverage. This may put them out of reach for many patients.
U.S. sales of Lilly’s weight loss treatment Zepbound nearly tripled in the third quarter to $3.57 billion. Meanwhile, diabetes drug Monjaro, which has been on the market longer, doubled to $6.52 billion on the back of growth outside the US.
Combined, the drugs have brought in nearly $25 billion in sales so far this year for Indianapolis-based Lilly. This has exceeded the company’s total revenue from 2020.
The drugs helped Eli Lilly & Co. report third-quarter profit of $5.58 billion and outperform Wall Street expectations.
Novo Nordisk said it will pay $56.50 in cash for each Metsera share and can pay an additional $21.25 if the company meets certain drug development targets. Drug maker already has a cure for obesity and diabetes Vegs And Ozempic in the market.
That totals $77.75, more than double the closing price of Metsera shares on Sept. 19, the last trading day before Pfizer made its offering.
Pfizer Inc. is known for its COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty and treatment Paxlovid, among other drugs. But the New York drugmaker decided to take another step at treating obesity just months after ending development of its drug.