Eli Lilly soars as Pfizer suffers post-Covid hangover

All the talk about mega-cap tech stocks means many may not have not noticed that an old-school drug company, Eli Lilly, has worked its way into the top 10 list of the largest US companies. So says Bespoke Investment, noting that Lilly’s $600 billion (€554.6 billion) market capitalisation puts it in eighth place, ahead of Tesla.

Shares in Lilly, which employs some 2,500 people in Cork and Limerick, have more than tripled over the past three years – a breathless run largely driven by its diabetes and weight-loss drug success.

Investors’ high hopes for Lilly are in stark contrast to another company hoping to get into the anti-obesity market – Pfizer.

[ Expired Pfizer Covid antiviral drugs set to cost Europe €2bn ]

Bespoke notes that Lilly and Pfizer, which employs approximately 5,000 people in Ireland, have traded at very similar valuations for most of the past three decades. That was the case as recently as 2021, when investors were more focused on Pfizer’s Covid vaccines than weight-loss treatments. Today, things are very different. Down 40 per cent over the last 12 months, Pfizer now trades on a price/sales ratio of just two, compared to 18 for high-flying Lilly.

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