Eli Lilly’s market capitalization is $1 trillion, the first for a healthcare company

Eli Lilly It reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion on Friday, and is the first healthcare company in the world to join the exclusive club dominated by technology companies.

Eli Lilly stock briefly reached the $1 trillion mark in morning trading before pulling back. It last traded around $1,048 per share. Eli Lilly is the second non-technology company to reach the coveted $1 trillion mark in the United States after Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway.

The pharmaceutical company’s stock has risen more than 36% this year as investors hailed the gains it has made over its main rival Novo Nordisk In the field of GLP-1 drugs. Shares of the Indianapolis, Indiana-based company have benefited from the growing popularity of weight loss injection Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro.

These two drugs have led to impressive sales growth for Eli Lilly. Last month, the drugmaker said Monjaro had revenue of $6.52 billion in the third quarter, an increase of 109% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, Zepbound recorded sales of $3.59 billion during the period, an increase of 184% from the same period the previous year.

Demand for treatments will only grow as approvals for their use and insurance coverage expand. In addition, the drugmaker 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 is likely to 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 changes, Novo Nordisk remains a formidable competitor to Eli Lilly in this space. Pfizer made big inroads into the market as well, when it won a $10 billion bidding war with Novo Nordisk to buy obesity drug company Metsera earlier this month.

Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and American Civil War veteran, founded his namesake company in 1876. It has long been at the forefront of diabetes treatment, 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 roster of widely successful products for much of its profits and revenue. These products include insulin, the depression pill Prozac, and the oldest polio vaccine.

Eli Lilly hit the jackpot with its May 2022 approval of the diabetes drug tirzepatide, sold under the name Mounjaro. It begins to compete with Novo Nordisk’s diabetes injection Ozempic, which entered the market a few years ago.

But Eli Lilly brought a new way to treat diabetes and ultimately obesity. Tirzepatide works by mimicking two hormones produced in the gut called GLP-1 and GIP. GLP-1 helps reduce food intake and appetite. GIP, which also suppresses appetite, may also improve how the body breaks down sugar and fat.

Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and the weight-loss drug Wegovy, only targets GLP-1.

Mounjaro achieved “outstanding” status—meaning it had annual sales of more than $1 billion—during its first full year on the market. Then Eli Lilly won approval in late 2023 for the obesity treatment drug tirzepatide, which is sold under the name Zepbound and now competes with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.

By 2024, Mounjaro had sales of $11.54 billion, while Zepbound had revenue of $4.93 billion.