Eli Lilly (LLY) earnings Q1 2026

Eli Lilly on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings and revenue that blew past estimates and hiked its full-year sales outlook by $2 billion, as demand for its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro spiked again.

The pharmaceutical giant now expects 2026 revenue to come in between $82 billion and $85 billion, up from previous guidance of $80 billion to $83 billion.

Lilly also projects its full-year adjusted profit to be between $35.50 to $37 per share. That compares with a previous outlook of $33.50 to $35 per share. 

Resilient demand for Zepbound and Mounjaro has helped fuel several strong quarters for Lilly despite lower prices for the medications in the U.S.

Mounjaro’s worldwide revenue rose 125% to $8.66 billion for the quarter, including U.S. sales of $4.2 billion. That surpassed the $7.26 billion in worldwide sales that analysts were expecting for the quarter, according to StreetAccount.

Zepbound, which entered the market roughly three years ago, posted $4.16 billion in U.S. revenue for the first quarter. That’s up 80% from the year-earlier period, as demand for the drug also rose while realized prices dropped. Analysts were expecting $4.04 billion in U.S. sales for Zepbound, according to StreetAccount.

Lilly is working to maintain its dominance in the booming market for GLP-1 drugs, with the company holding 60.1% share of the U.S. obesity and diabetes drug market in the first quarter, according to an earnings presentation. Novo Nordisk’s market share in the quarter was 39.4%.

Here’s what Eli Lilly reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

• Earnings per share: $8.55 adjusted vs. $6.66 expected
• Revenue: $19.80 billion vs. $17.62 billion expected

Shares of Lilly rose more than 10% in afternoon trading Thursday.

The company posted first-quarter revenue of $19.80 billion, up 56% from the same period a year ago. 

“Impressively, it’s like our fifth or sixth quarter in a row posting really strong topline growth numbers,” Lilly CEO Dave Ricks told CNBC in an exclusive interview Thursday. “That’s not usually something that pharmaceutical companies of our size do.”

Revenue in the U.S. climbed 43% to $12.1 billion. Eli Lilly said that was driven by a 49% increase in volume — or the number of prescriptions or units sold — for its products, primarily for Mounjaro and Zepbound. That was partially offset by lower realized prices of Zepbound and another medication for psoriatic arthritis and other conditions, the company said.

Notably, revenue outside the U.S. jumped 81% to $7.7 billion, propelled by a 95% surge in volume and partly offset by lower realized prices.

Ricks said Lilly had slowed down…