Buoyed by yet another strong quarter fuelled by obesity drug demand, Eli Lilly has raised its sales expectations for the year ahead.
Revenue for Lilly in Q1 2026 reached $19.8bn, up 56% from the same period last year. The growth signals continued momentum for Lilly in the new financial year, having seen its full-year 2025 sales surge 45% compared to 2024. The quarterly result was $2.4bn ahead of Visible Alpha consensus.
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As expected, Lilly’s glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) drugs, Mounjaro (tirzepatide) in type 2 diabetes and Zepbound (tirzepatide) in obesity, continued to do much of the heavy lifting. Mounjaro generated $8.7bn for the quarter, while Zepbound made $4.2bn. These values marked respective increases of 125% and 80% compared to the drugs’ sales in Q1 2025.
Buoyed by cardiometabolic demand and shrugging off partial headwinds from pricing reforms in the US, Lilly lifted its 2026 full-year revenue guidance. The drugmaker now anticipates between $82.bn and $85bn for the year, up $2bn from the prior goalposts.
All eyes on Foundayo
Lilly’s quarter marked the first with its approved oral GLP-1RA for weight loss, Foundayo (orforglipron). Much of the investor attention was on the drug’s early sales tracking. While the drugmaker did not reveal much data given the marketing infancy, executives were encouraged by the early rollout.
In a Q1 earnings call, chief financial officer Lucas Montarce said: “Early feedback from payers, physicians, and patients is encouraging. Foundayo was broadly available in pharmacies on 9 April and is available on more than 12 major telehealth platforms.”
Lilly US president Ilya Yuffa commented: “There are three key catalysts of growth: growing familiarity among healthcare providers with the clinical profile of Foundayo, building out access, and growing awareness of Foundayo with consumers. We are making progress on all three fronts. For healthcare professionals, we now have over 8,000 prescribers of Foundayo, a third of whom have not previously written an oral GLP-1.”
In a research note, Citi analysts said: “Leading indicators point to robust demand drivers yet to go online, adding to our confidence in its opportunity.”
Lilly is vying for early market share in the oral obesity space with Novo Nordisk, which won approval for oral Wegovy (semaglutide) in December 2025. Novo has been making the most of its first-mover advantage; Jefferies analysts have pointed to a “numerically higher” demand for the Danish drugmaker’s pill compared to injectable counterparts at their respective launches. While Foundayo has a key advantage in that it does not have meal restrictions with administration, it lags in efficacy compared to oral Wegovy. Citi analysts have previously said the superior ease-of-use “more than offsets” the efficacy deficit, expecting Foundayo to capture a lion’s share of the expanding market.
M&A set to continue
Lilly has generated waves in the pharma industry for its unwavering dealmaking activity so far in 2026. Earlier this week, the company outlaid $2.3bn to buy blood cancer specialist Ajax Therapeutics. That marked the sixth M&A deal this year already, with around $21bn spent in total. This excludes several licensing deals that have also been agreed in the billion-dollar threshold.
In the earnings call, CEO Dave Ricks said: “We expect to remain active in business development to complement our internal portfolio.”
