Eli Lilly sales fall short thanks to antibody woes, but its non-COVID meds are fine

The pandemic giveth and the pandemic taketh away.  That was the major takeaway from Eli Lilly’s first-quarter earnings, which reflected plummeting demand for COVID-19 drugs.   While Lilly’s revenue for the period clocked in at $6.81 billion, a 16% increase from the period last year, it fell significantly short of analyst projections from Bloomberg ($7.02B) and Mizuho ($6.94 billion), for example. Earnings per share tumbled to $1.87, falling short of a predicted $2.13. Investors weren’t happy. Shares plummeted by 8% in pre-market trading and were down by 4.7% midday. But at least one analyst figures the pandemic pain is masking a more positive long-term story. “Quarterly performance (in 2021) was expected to be lumpy in Pharma due to the pandemic as well as sales of antibodies,” wrote Louise Chen of Cantor Fitzgerald. The firm puts Lilly’s 12-month price target at a hefty $245.  As last year progressed, Lilly increasingly rode sales of bamlanivimab, making $871 million off the COVID-19 antibody treatment in the fourth quarter alone. But a month ago, as coronavirus variants emerged in the United States, the FDA halted distribution of bamlanivimab after finding it ineffective as a standalone treatment. Earlier in March, three western states, including California, had already…
Read More