Eli Lilly (Lilly) has shared its adjusted financial guidance for 2023, with future growth in key product areas outlined in its report.
Lilly said ahead of a call held on 13 December with investors that it planned to ‘review potential key events for the upcoming year, including important data readouts for several investigational medicines in its clinical pipeline and the possibility of multiple regulatory submissions and approvals’.
Lilly’s projection for revenue in 2023 is set to be between $30.3bn and $30.8bn, and anticipates this to be driven by volume increases from key growth products.
In delivering its statement, the company acknowledged that such growth will be expected to be partially counterbalanced by lower revenue brought in by its cancer drug, Alimta, as a result of its loss of patent exclusivity and no expected COVID-19 antibody revenue. Lilly also took into account the continued negative affect of foreign exchange rates.
Meanwhile, for 2023, $6.9bn to $7.1bn was cast as the expected range for marketing, selling and administrative expenses, while the company suggested R&D expenses had the potential to be in the range of $8.2bn to $8.4bn.
Commenting on the guidance, Anat Ashkenazi, Lilly’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said: “We believe we have the potential to deliver top-tier, volume-driven revenue growth through at least 2030 with groundbreaking medicines. In addition to the tremendous ongoing launch of Mounjaro in type 2 diabetes and expected future opportunities to treat obesity and obesity-related metabolic outcomes with tirzepatide, we plan to invest in our four significant potential new launches next year.”
In accordance with its 2022 guidance, Lilly did not include any potential or pending acquired in-process R&D and development milestone charges in its initial 2023 guidance and the company expects to update earnings per share guidance each quarter as acquired in-process R&D and development milestone charges are incurred.
Lilly added that ‘other income (expense) is expected to be expense in the range of $100m to $200m on both a reported and non-GAAP basis’.
Reuters noted that analysts have observed Lilly’s increased spending on R&D “ahead of presenting data for its keenly watched donanemab drug for Alzheimer’s disease as well as its regulatory submission for tirzepatide in obesity”.
David Ricks, Lilly’s chair and chief executive officer, said: “Lilly is exiting 2022 with momentum. Our approved and available medicines are early in their life cycles and showed accelerated growth during the year, led by a strong Mounjaro launch. In addition, several of our late-stage medicines for serious diseases were submitted for approval this year, and will hopefully launch in 2023.”