Drug Discovery and Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Voices
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro sees explosive sales growth, yet demand outpaces supply

By Brian Buntz | November 2, 2023

Eli Lilly in the Drug Discovery & Development Pharma 50Eli Lilly’s diabetes medication Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is seeing explosive sales growth, jumping from $187.3 million in the third quarter of 2022 to $1.4 billion in the same period this year. Conversely, sales of Lilly’s Trulicity, another diabetes drug, have declined, dipping from $1.85 billion in Q3 2022 to $1.67 billion in Q3 2023.

Mounjaro is selling so briskly that Lilly is having trouble making enough of it. The company is aiming to boost supply by recruiting a diverse portfolio of contract manufacturers. It plowed $450 million in its Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina to support additional drug filling, device assembly, and packaging capacity. It also invested an additional $1.6 billion in new manufacturing sites in its home state of Indiana. Despite the efforts, the company notes that supply problems have led to “intermittent delays” in filling orders and tight supply of the medication throughout most of the third quarter.

Weight Loss Thresholds Comparison

Progress in bolstering Mounjaro capacity

“In terms of Mounjaro supply, we’re continuing to make progress on our manufacturing expansion agenda,” said Anat Ashkenazi, chief financial officer, in an earning call. “Given strong demand, we continue to experience tight supply throughout most of Q3, which impacted results for the quarter.”

The company aims to double production of the drug by the end of the year.

Lilly is also aiming to win FDA approval for tirzepatide for obesity. In 2022, FDA gave the drug Fast Track designation for that indication.

In August, BMO Capital analyst Evan Seigerman projected Mounjaro would generate peak sales of $68.7 billion. 

One wild card that could affect potential demand for the drug is its durability in supporting weight loss. In the earnings call, Mike Mason, the president of Lilly Diabetes, suggested that Mounjaro has the potential to offer better long-term results for weight loss compared to other medications, including semaglutide. He stressed, however, that it was difficult to speculate on how durable weight loss from the drug might be. The best data currently available involves type 2 diabetes patients who started Mounjaro before the company’s savings card changes last fall. “Mounjaro persistency for those patients is tracking higher than those patients that were started on Trulicity and Ozempic (semaglutide) over that same period of time,” he said. “So while it’s too early to project the average length of therapy or how many out of 100 will still be on therapy after a couple of years, I think this early data is encouraging. As for obesity, time is going to tell.”


Filed Under: Metabolic disease/endicrinology
Tagged With: diabetes medication, Eli Lilly, Mounjaro, pharmaceutical industry, sales growth
 

About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

Related Articles Read More >

Eli Lilly in the Drug Discovery & Development Pharma 50
Lilly’s oral GLP-1 achieves up to 1.6% A1C reduction and 16 lb weight loss in late-stage diabetes trial
Mounjaro
GLP-1 use tripled among non-diabetics, hitting $5.8B in 2022
University of Ottawa students harness tobacco relative to grow Ozempic-like drugs
tirzepatide
JAMA: Potential rare vision complications linked to blockbuster GLP-1s
“ddd
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news and trends happening now in the drug discovery and development industry.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Drug Discovery and Development
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • Medtech100 Index
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Medical Design & Outsourcing
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • R&D World
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Drug Discovery & Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Voices
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE