Lilly sales jump 39% to $24.4 billion on Mounjaro, Zepbound

Eli Lilly sold $24.4 billion of medicine in the third quarter, up 39% from $17.6 billion a year earlier, the company said Oct. 29. It raised its 2026 sales forecast to $91 billion to $92 billion, up from $85 billion to $87 billion.

Two brands did most of the work. Mounjaro, the diabetes version of tirzepatide, brought in $10.7 billion, up 65%. Zepbound, the obesity version, brought in $5.4 billion, up 49%. Together that is $16.1 billion, about two out of every three dollars Lilly took in.

Why it matters: Lilly is selling far more doses at lower prices. Volume rose 53% while realized prices fell 15%. That is what a mass market drug looks like, and the forecast says Lilly expects it to keep going.

Where the money came from

US revenue rose 34% to $15.1 billion. Volume rose 41% and prices fell 7%, a drop Lilly tied mainly to Zepbound.

Revenue outside the US rose 47% to $9.3 billion. Volume there jumped 76% and prices fell 29%. Lilly said the price drop came mostly from adding Mounjaro to China’s national reimbursement drug list. Outside the US, Mounjaro sales nearly doubled, up 93% to $5.7 billion, now more than its $5.0 billion in the US.

Chief executive David Ricks credited “broad global consumer demand for Mounjaro and Zepbound,” the launches of Foundayo, the company’s GLP-1 pill, and “expanded U.S. coverage for obesity care.” Foundayo brought in $184 million in the quarter.

The fine print

About $900 million of the quarter came from items that will not repeat in the same way. Lilly booked $410 million of sales milestones on Jardiance, the diabetes drug it shares with Boehringer Ingelheim, and says no further milestones remain. The rest came from favorable changes to rebate and discount estimates.

Profit grew more slowly than sales. Earnings per share rose 16% to $7.22. On Lilly’s adjusted basis they rose 7% to $7.48. Both figures absorb $4.57 a share of charges for buying drugs still in development, mostly from the AtaiBeckley deal, against $0.71 a share a year ago.

Those charges are also why the profit forecast went down while the sales forecast went up. Lilly now expects adjusted earnings of $35.00 to $36.00 a share for 2026, down from $35.50 to $36.50. Without the deal charges, the company says, the midpoint would have risen $4.07.

Gross margin was 83.9% of sales. Research spending rose 23% to $4.2 billion.

What else is growing

The newer drugs outside obesity are still small but moving fast. Kisunla, the Alzheimer’s drug, rose 175% to $193 million. Jaypirca, for blood cancers, rose 59% to $228 million. Lilly says sales of its newest immunology, cancer and neuroscience products doubled from a year ago.

The next wave is already in trials. A day before the earnings, Lilly reported that its experimental triple acting shot retatrutide beat Ozempic on weight loss in a head to head study. Lilly also says it is building new plants in Texas and Virginia.

Lilly hosts its earnings call at 10 a.m. Eastern on Oct. 29.

The short version: Lilly is now a volume business. Nine months in, it has booked $67.2 billion, up 46%, and it says the last quarter will push the year past $91 billion.