Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Lilly Takes A Shot

According to Reuters, Lilly's earnings fell for 4th quarter 2006 and it is also issuing guidance that its earnings may be lower than expected this year.
Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday fourth quarter earnings fell, hurt by a charge for a settlement with users of its Zyprexa schizophrenia drug, and it forecast 2007 earnings at the low end of Wall Street estimates.

--SNIP--

Global Zyprexa revenue rose 12 percent to $1.16 billion, in large part because of price hikes. The company said U.S. demand remained flat for the pill, whose use has been crimped by concerns over weight gains that can increase risk of diabetes.

--SNIP--

Cymbalta sales leaped 85 percent to $424 million, amid soaring demand in the United States and introductions of the drug in more overseas markets. [Must be that catchy Depression Hurts campaign that miseladingly suggests Cymbalta lowers pain in depression]
And to think that there are still some relatively large lawsuits looming over Zyprexa. Ouch.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In a conference call with analysts, executives at the company acknowledged that seeing earnings drop to 12 cents per share from 64 cents per share in the year-earlier period was disappointing, but indicated that they were very enthusiastic about a new management plan to leverage the company's knowledge base to increase dividends to include the issue of one sugar-coated placebo pill per share which shareholders will be empowered to use to treat an illness of their choice.

Anonymous said...

Back-tracking...

"Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday fourth quarter earnings fell, hurt by a charge for a settlement with users of its Zyprexa schizophrenia drug, and it forecast 2007 earnings at the low end of Wall Street estimates."

This the "irreparable harm" Judge Weinstein is referring to, perhaps.

"Global Zyprexa revenue rose 12 percent to $1.16 billion, in large part because of price hikes. The company said U.S. demand remained flat for the pill, whose use has been crimped by concerns over weight gains that can increase risk of diabetes."

I'm curious. Other than the NYT who's been reporting this, how are others finding out? Word-of-mouth? Doctors scaling back on prescriptions?

[delete this comment if this appears a second time]