Dive Brief:
- Eli Lilly & Co thrilled investors Thursday morning when provided guidance for 2017 and reiterated its long-term revenue growth expectations of 5% annually.
- The company expects to bring in revenues between $21.8 billion to $22.3 billion for the full-year 2017, above analysts' consensus expectation of $21.7 billion.
- Lilly now expects earnings per share in the range of $4.05 to $4.15, above expectations of $3.96.
Dive Insight:
Lilly's stock jumped nearly 4% in early-morning trading on Thursday after the Indianapolis pharma announced better-than-expected guidance for next year and confirmed that Basaglar, the follow-on insulin glargine it developed with Boehringer Ingelheim, was officially launched in the U.S. market.
Basaglar, approved by the Food and Drug Administrative in December 2015, is an unofficial biosimilar of Sanofi's blockbuster insulin Lantus. Previously the market leader, Lantus has been facing competition from all angles.
Lilly's strategy to work closely with pharmacy benefit managers is paying off. Earlier this year, CVS Health announced it would include Basaglar in its national formulary coverage, but would leave off Lantus and Sanofi's follow-on Toujeo.
Lilly said its strong earnings going forward would be drive by recently launched products Trulicity (dulaglutide), Taltz (ixekizumab), Cyramza (ramucirumab) and Jardiance (empagliflozin). The pharma company reaffirmed that it expects to have 20 new product launches between 2014 to 2023. It has already launched seven and has another currently awaiting approval at the FDA.
"Because of our confidence in our future growth prospects, we are reaffirming our financial commitments through the remainder of the decade," said Derica Rice, Lilly's executive vice president for global services and chief financial officer.
"In 2017, we are expecting mid-single-digit revenue growth driven by volume from recent product launches. By improving productivity through prudent expense management, we expect to leverage this top-line growth into double-digit earnings growth," he added.
Marketing, selling and administrative expenses are expected to be in the range of $6.4 billion to $6.6 billion, while R&D expenses are expected to be in the range of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion. Lilly expects a tax rate of 20%.