NVO - Better Blockbuster-Drug Stock: Novo Nordisk vs. Eli Lilly
2024-03-03 12:51:00 ET
Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) are two of the hottest pharmaceutical stocks of the past three years. Both companies have marked returns far in excess of the market's, thanks to popular demand for their freshly launched medications that treat obesity as well as type 2 diabetes. Both medicines are blockbuster drugs -- defined as those that generate annual sales totaling more than $1 billion. Blockbuster medicines tend to generate a lot of buzz, and the businesses that can get more drugs with blockbuster potential out the door are likely to outperform those with fewer.
So which of these two giants has more blockbuster potential on its roster? Let's answer that question by examining each pharma's portfolio to identify the most likely candidates for billion-dollar drugs.
Novo Nordisk has more than one billion-dollar drug today, with even more on the way. The most recent star performer you've probably already heard of is called Ozempic, which treats type 2 diabetes and is based on a molecule called semaglutide. The company's leading obesity medicine, Wegovy, is based on the same compound, and it's a similarly big earner. Around 90% ($31.2 billion) of Novo Nordisk's revenue in 2023 was derived from sales of diabetes and obesity medicines.
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Better Blockbuster-Drug Stock: Novo Nordisk vs. Eli Lilly