The History of Eli Lilly: Beyond the Ticker
With a rich history dating back to the 19th century, Eli Lilly (LLY) has faced hardships and successes. But its fast-growing market capitalization has quickly transformed the company into the world’s largest pharmaceutical brand. Join Beyond the Ticker for a closer look at Lilly’s biggest moments. 1876 The company was founded by Colonel Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and Union Army veteran. Lilly served as president until his death in 1898. 1914-1918 Lilly experienced significant growth around the time of World War I, including the expansion of its facilities in Indianapolis, Indiana. 1923 The company began selling the diabetes drug Iretin, the world’s first commercially available insulin product. 1952 Lilly went public on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1987, Lilly sold Arden to Fabergé for $657 million. In 2009, Lilly was fined more than $1.4 billion, the largest amount in U.S. history, for illegally selling Zyprexa, a best-selling product for mood disorders. In 2022, Lilly had a major breakthrough with Tirzepatide, a new type of GLP-1 product sold as Munjaro for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The drug began competing with Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) Ozempic, which had been on the market for several years, but began struggling to meet demand as it gained popularity for off-label weight loss. In 2023, Zepbound, which has the same formulation as Munjaro, was approved as an obesity treatment and began competing with Novo’s Wegoby. The two companies have a duopoly in this new obesity treatment market. Thanks to the Tirzepatide drug, Lilly’s stock price has risen nearly 100% over the past year, and its annual revenue in 2023 exceeded $34.1 billion, up about 20% from the previous year. 2024 Lilly continues to reach new highs and is now the largest healthcare company in the world with a market capitalization of well over $800 billion. Wall Street projects Lilly will make $13 billion this year from GLP-1 alone. And this is all before the FDA expands its use to other diseases. That’s why Lilly is on track to make history and become the first trillion-dollar healthcare company. From tech giants to retail giants, Beyond the Ticker is a historic series that takes a deep dive into some of Wall Street’s trending companies and explains how they transformed into the financial icons they are today. Check out the other articles in our Beyond the Ticker series and be sure to follow Yahoo Finance. Editor’s Note: This video was produced by Zach Faulds.