Novo Nordisk vs Eli Lilly: The Better Buy Before Earnings

Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) some posted Q1 FY2026 results this spring, and the spread betwixt them keeps widening.

Lilly delivered 55.55% gross maturation and raised guidance. Novo, meanwhile, is softly restructuring aft guiding to an adjusted income diminution of -4% to -12% astatine changeless currency. Same cause class, precise antithetic quarters.

Foundayo Sprints. Wegovy Pill Defends.

Lilly's Q1 was a blowout. Mounjaro rang up $8.66 cardinal (+125% YoY), and Zepbound added $4.16 cardinal (+80%). Volume climbed 65%, much than absorbing a 13% terms drop. The centerpiece was Foundayo (orforglipron), the archetypal approved GLP-1 pill with nary nutrient oregon h2o restrictions. That is simply a existent manufacturing borderline implicit injectable peptides.

Novo's header looked massive, $96.82 cardinal successful revenue, but that fig carried a $4.20 cardinal non-cash reversal of a US 340B provision. Strip that retired and adjusted income slipped 4% astatine changeless speech rates.

Ozempic fell to $27.83 cardinal (-8%). The agleam spot: the Wegovy pill deed $2.26 cardinal successful its archetypal afloat 4th and reached implicit 1 cardinal patients since its January launch. CEO Mike Doustdar called it "the astir efficacious GLP-1 tablet" connected the market. Impressive, but not capable to offset Ozempic and Rybelsus fatigue.

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Expansion Mode vs. Damage Control

Ricks utilized Q1 to denote 4 acquisitions (Orna, Centessa, Kelonia, Ajax). Doustdar, by contrast, is presiding implicit a institution that already chopped astir 9,000 positions and pre-announced database terms cuts of astir 50% for Wegovy and 35% for Ozempic effectual January 1, 2027.

That protects volume. It besides caps 2027 currency flow. And CagriSema, erstwhile the marquee follow-on, missed its REDEFINE 4 superior endpoint and was terminated arsenic a co-formulation.