Shares of Eli Lilly and Company NYSE: LLYthe world's most important pharmaceutical stock, started 2026 in a bad way. In late April, LLY shares fell as much as 20%. However, the stock has rebounded sharply since then.
Eli Lilly and Company Today
Eli Lilly and Company
- 52 week interval
- $623.78
▼
$1,133.95
- Dividend Yield
- 0.68%
- The P/E ratio
- 36.09
- Target Value
- $1,218.33
Lilly's positive earnings report kicked off the session, with shares up nearly 10% in one day. Lilly has continued to climb higher, now down about 5% in 2026.
One recent development that helped Lilly's stock rise was the recent results surrounding its GLP-1 oral drug Foundayo. Although Foundayo is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the need for further testing does not end there. By producing robust and comprehensive data on a drug, Lilly can improve the chances of a doctor prescribing it. Lilly's latest results support this very important goal.
Foundayo's 2-Pronged Attack: Needle Fear Patients and Maintenance Patients
The trial in question focused on weight loss maintenance—helping patients lose weight after stopping high doses of GLP-1. For Lilly, this is part of a two-pronged strategy to generate demand for Foundayo.
The first part is based on attracting completely new patients. Researchers estimate that up to 25% of American adults have a fear of needles, which prevents some patients who want to lose weight from taking GLP-1 injections. With pill-based medicines, Lilly can open up demand for this patient group.
However, Lilly follows Novo Nordisk A/S NYSE: NVO for oral intake, as Novo received approval for its oral weight loss drug a few months earlier. Novo's pill also showed better efficacy than Foundayo. Novo notes an average weight loss of 14% after 64 weeks among patients taking the Wegovy pill. This compares to an average weight loss of 12.4% after 72 weeks in Foundayo.
According to BMO Capital Markets, “While Foundayo's stock has been trending higher since its launch in April, the stock still lags behind Wegovy Pill and Street expectations.”
However, Lilly may be able to distinguish itself better in the second prong of its strategy: weight maintenance. Injections are more effective than any pill, and Lilly reports a 20.2% weight loss over 72 weeks in patients using Zepbound. Therefore, after losing a lot of weight from injections, patients can switch to pills to maintain the lost weight.
With this, Lilly can drive repeat sales of Foundayo as patients make the switch. Its recent Foundayo results provided encouraging data in this regard.
Foundayo: Weight Loss Care Is Better Than Cold in Turkey
In its ATTAIN-MAINTAIN study, Lilly looked at patients who had lost weight by taking Zepbound. Over the course of Zepbound, patients lost an average of 55 lbs. Patients then switched to Foundayo for 52 weeks, gaining 11 lbs. Therefore, when using Foundayo as a maintenance treatment, patients regained only 20% of their initial weight loss.
This is actually a powerful show, as patients who drop GLP-1 gain more weight overall. A recent analysis of 48 studies found that after one year of GLP-1s, patients regained 60% of their initial weight. Therefore, the percentage of weight loss maintained in Lilly's study is three times higher than that of those who were completely deprived of GLP-1.
Lilly also conducted similar tests with patients who lost 41 pounds initially by taking the Wegovy injection. After switching to Foundayo for 52 weeks, these patients regained 2 lbs—another powerful result. Finally, Zepbound to Foundayo patients lost 17.2% of their weight, while Wegovy to Foundayo patients lost 15.5% of their weight on average.
Obviously, these results provide evidence that switching to Foundayo after taking the injections can be an effective way to keep the lost weight off. Notably, on the day of the data release, Lilly's shares rose 2.4%.
There is also reason to believe that Foundayo will have greater appeal as a weight loss treatment than the Wegovy pill. This is because it comes without food restrictions. Meanwhile, doctors advise Wegovy pill patients not to eat or drink for 30 minutes after taking the medicine.
Finally, the useful aspect of pills is the main reason why people want to switch to injections. Despite the dietary restrictions, Lilly has an advantage here. However, it will be interesting to see if Novo does similar maintenance research that could change the field in this vertical.
Analysts Predict Big Rise for Lillies After Recent Reversal
All in all, targeting the weight loss supplement market is one of the many ways Eli Lilly can continue to grow its GLP-1 business. Notably, even with Lilly only down less than 10% from its long-term highs, Wall Street analysts continue to predict big gains ahead. The MarketBeat consensus price target for the stock sits near $1,218, which represents a little more than 20% upside.
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