Eli Lilly’s obesity drugs fuel revenue growth as demand shows no sign of slowing down
Max Stanyard, Healthcare and Life Sciences Senior Analyst at RSM UK, comments on Eli Lilly’s H1 results: “Eli Lilly’s continued impressive revenue growth confirms that demand for its obesity and diabetes medications shows no sign of slowing down. Management have therefore raised full-year revenue guidance to $85 – $87bn. Mounjaro and Zepbound sales grew to $14.9bn, up 73% year-on-year, with international demand for Mounjaro increasingly doing the heavy lifting as the US market matures.
“Sales of Foundayo, Lilly’s oral weight-loss pill, came in broadly in line with expectations at $98m. While Lilly has submitted its oral weight-loss pill to the MHRA for approval, Novo Nordisk has already got there first, with the MHRA approving its rival oral pill in June 2026. That gives Novo a head start in the UK's fledgling oral weight-loss market despite Lilly's faster growth in the US. It remains to be seen whether Lilly is able to catch up, as it was able to do with its injectables.
“A pill removes two of the biggest barriers to scaling weight-loss treatments. First, the supply constraints on injectable pens, and second, the specialist clinical capacity needed to prescribe and monitor injectable treatment – which matters enormously for an NHS already rationing access to injectable weight-loss drugs.
“Access to obesity medication in the UK and US markets remains far apart, which is only set to widen with the arrival of oral options. NHS prescribing is tightly restricted by cost-effectiveness thresholds and limited capacity within specialist weight management services, while the US is now actively subsidising access at scale. There’s a risk the UK will fall further behind on real-world evidence and data generation, which shapes where global pharma chooses to prioritise future launches and investment, meaning the UK could lose out.
“Lilly’s continued acquisition spree this year – spanning oncology, autoimmune disease, sleep disorders and vaccines – shows a business using obesity drug cash flow to diversify well beyond GLP-1s. The scale of its reinvestment into US science and manufacturing outstrips anything comparable in the UK, underlining the risk that the UK remains a follower rather than a genuine partner in the next wave of pharma innovation, unless it can offer a more compelling and timely route to patient access.”