Eli Lilly hits $1 trillion market value, first for health care company

Eli Lilly reached a $1 trillion market capitalization on Friday, the first health-care company in the world to join the exclusive club dominated by tech firms.

The drugmaker’s stock closed the day just below $1,060 a share, up about 1.5% and at roughly the $1 trillion threshold. Eli Lilly is the second nontechnology company to reach that market cap milestone in the U.S. after Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway.

The company’s rise came as shares of its chief rival in the GLP-1 drug space, Novo Nordisk, tumbled about 10% in premarket U.S. trading Monday. While Novo Nordisk’s stock fell after disappointing Alzheimer’s trial results, the drugmaker’s market share losses to Eli Lilly in obesity and diabetes drugs have led its stock to drop nearly 45% this year.

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly’s stock has climbed more than 36% this year as investors have applauded the gains it has made over Novo Nordisk in the booming space. The Indianapolis-based company’s stock has been riding the skyrocketing popularity of its weight loss injection Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro.

The two drugs have driven eye-popping sales growth for Eli Lilly. Last month, the company said Mounjaro drew in $6.52 billion in revenue in the third quarter, a 109% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, Zepbound posted $3.59 billion in sales during the period, a 184% spike from the prior-year period.

Demand for the treatments will only grow as approvals for their use and insurance coverage expand. In addition, Eli Lilly expects an oral version of its popular drugs to hit the market next year, which could give patients a more convenient option than a shot that is easier for the company to produce.

Eli Lilly will likely remain a dominant player in the weight loss drug market, which some analysts believe could be worth more than $150 billion by the early 2030s.

But despite its recent struggles and leadership shake-ups, Novo Nordisk remains a formidable rival for Eli Lilly in the space. Pfizer also made a push forward in the market, as well, when it won a $10 billion bidding war with Novo Nordisk for obesity drugmaker Metsera earlier this month.

Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and Union veteran of the U.S. Civil War, founded his namesake company in 1876. It has long been at the forefront of the diabetes treatment space, introducing the world’s first commercial insulin in 1923. 

Eli Lilly became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange by 1952, and for decades relied on a slate of widely successful products to drive much of its profits and revenue. That included…