Eli Lilly Reports 54% Q3 Revenue Surge as Tirzepatide Sales Overtake Keytruda

Eli Lilly delivers robust performance again, raising its full-year guidance once more, while the star GLP-1 drug tirzepatide is expected to become the "top-selling" product in the global pharmaceutical industry by 2025.

On October 30, Eli Lilly and Company (LLY.US) released its third-quarter report for 2025. Revenue for the third quarter reached $17.6 billion, a year-over-year increase of 54%, surpassing industry expectations; net profit reached $5.583 billion, compared to $970 million in the same period last year; earnings per share were $6.21, with adjusted earnings per share at $7.02 under non-GAAP accounting standards.

As in the second quarter, David A. Ricks, Chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company, once again commented: "Eli Lilly and Company has achieved another quarter of strong performance." The biggest contributor to this performance remains the growth in sales of the GLP-1/GIP drug tirzepatide.

Specifically, the Q3 sales of Mounjaro (tirzepatide for glycemic control) reached $6.515 billion, a year-on-year increase of 109%, with the year-to-date sales amounting to $15.556 billion, marking a year-on-year growth of 94%. Meanwhile, the Q3 sales of Zepbound (tirzepatide for weight loss) hit $3.588 billion, surging 185% year-on-year, and the year-to-date sales reached $9.281 billion, compared to $3.018 billion in the same period last year.

Eli Lilly's Q3 Earnings Report: Star Product Revenue

According to this calculation, tirzepatide, a major product, contributed $10.103 billion to Eli Lilly in the third quarter and $24.837 billion in the first three quarters. Also on October 30, another multinational pharmaceutical company, Merck, announced its third-quarter earnings report. The financial report shows that Keytruda (referred to as "K drug"), a star cancer drug, achieved sales of $8.142 billion in the third quarter and $23.303 billion in the first three quarters. K drug is the "best-seller" in the global pharmaceutical industry in 2024. By comparison, tirzepatide has surpassed K drug.

Another star GLP-1 drug is Novo Nordisk's semaglutide, also a key player in the new "sales champion" lineup. The 2025 half-year report shows that semaglutide revenue reached 112.756 billion Danish kroner, approximately 16.5 billion US dollars, surpassing Keytruda's (K药) sales in the first half of the year. Novo Nordisk is expected to release its Q3 financial report on November 5th local time.

Eli Lilly's 2025 Performance Forecast

In this year's Q2 report, Eli Lilly raised its 2025 performance forecast, expecting total annual revenue to be between $60 billion and $62 billion. In the latest Q3 report, Eli Lilly again raised its forecast: total annual revenue is expected to be between $63 billion and $63.5 billion. Possibly influenced by the above news, Eli Lilly’s U.S. stock price surged over 7% at one point during pre-market trading on October 30.

Notably, recently, Eli Lilly and Company also announced that it will partner with NVIDIA to jointly build the most powerful supercomputer owned and operated by a pharmaceutical company. This supercomputer will power an "AI factory," a specialized computing infrastructure designed to manage the entire artificial intelligence lifecycle—from data input, model training, and parameter fine-tuning to large-scale inference.

The Paper's reporter, Li Xiaoxiao

Editorial Responsibility: He Junxi