Earnings
Sales of Johnson & Johnson’s esketamine-based nasal spray jumped in the fourth quarter last year, priming the pump for a suite of other pharmas, including AbbVie, champing at the bit with their own psychedelics.
With Biogen’s multiple sclerosis portfolio facing more generic pressure than ever, the company is eyeing a busy late-stage pipeline and hunting for deals to build its return to growth.
Bristol Myers Squibb delivered better than expected fourth quarter earnings, but Eliquis missed expectations while Cobenfy continues to struggle with uptake.
In addition to claiming revenue of $19.3 billion for the fourth quarter, Eli Lilly executives offered a glimpse into their strategy to expand their GLP-1 franchise into the immunology and inflammation space, with trials currently underway in asthma, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly both think the Wegovy pill is doing well, but the American rival sees the successful launch as a harbinger of good news for its own candidate, orforglipron, which is expected to hit the market in the second quarter.
On its fourth quarter earnings call Wednesday, AbbVie CEO Robert Michael called oncology and neuroscience “underappreciated” areas of focus for the pharma.
Novo Nordisk CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar acknowledged the market pressure facing the company’s GLP-1 products but sought to assure investors that Novo has the situation under control.
Amgen believes that it can transcend the expected tradeoff between convenience and efficacy, anticipating that its investigational obesity drug MariTide will continue to provide competitive weight loss even at monthly or longer schedules.
Instead of joining the increasingly crowded GLP-1 arena, GSK will focus its efforts downstream of obesity—a push currently anchored by its Phase III-ready FGF21 analog efimosfermin alfa for liver fibrosis.
Mounjaro and Zepbound combined for $11.7 billion in the fourth quarter, which beat analyst consensus of $10.6 billion.
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