NEW YORK, March 29, 2026, 11:06 EDT
Eli Lilly kicks off the week with a fresh pipeline pact in hand. Insilico Medicine on Sunday announced it struck a global licensing and research deal with the U.S. pharma giant, a tie-up valued at as much as $2.75 billion. Lilly shares finished Friday at $878.24, off 2.1%. The stock sits more than 22% beneath its Jan. 8 peak.
The timing is key here: Lilly is out to show it can stretch its growth well past its headline-grabbing weight-loss and diabetes drugs. Earlier this month, CFO Lucas Montarce told investors the company’s oral obesity drug orforglipron was “on track in the US” for a possible second-quarter launch. All this comes as Wall Street analysts are pulling back peak sales estimates for the obesity-drug sector, citing lower U.S. prices. Reuters
Friday brought a down day for the broader market, with the S&P 500 sliding 1.67%. Lilly lagged Johnson & Johnson, and also trailed both Pfizer and AbbVie during the session, according to MarketWatch data.
Eli Lilly has secured exclusive rights to develop, produce, and sell a group of preclinical oral drug candidates from Hong Kong’s Insilico, targeting certain disease areas, under a deal announced Sunday. The compounds haven’t entered human trials yet. Lilly will hand over $115 million upfront, Insilico said, with additional payments pegged to hitting development, regulatory, and commercial targets, plus royalties on any future sales.
Lilly on March 28 shared late-stage results: adults with psoriatic arthritis who took both Taltz and Zepbound saw better outcomes than those on Taltz by itself. The combo outperformed Taltz alone in patients with the joint disease tied to psoriasis, plus obesity or overweight. 31.7% of people on both drugs hit the main target—at least halving their disease activity and losing 10% of body weight—compared to just 0.8% for Taltz monotherapy.
Philip Mease, who led the research at Swedish Medical Center, described the results as “meaningful, broad improvements.” Over at Eli Lilly, immunology president Adrienne Brown pointed to patient feedback: “less fatigue and greater physical function.” Eli Lilly and Company
Lilly reported just a day ago that Ebglyss, its eczema treatment, maintained a strong response in a late-stage post-marketing trial—with patients seeing itch relief stretching out to four years. That news throws another approved therapy into the lineup as the company waits for the FDA’s anticipated early-second-quarter verdict on orforglipron.
Lilly continues to measure itself against Novo Nordisk. Just this month, Novo rolled out the first oral GLP-1 drug for obesity in the U.S., intensifying the contest in appetite-suppressing, blood sugar-reducing treatments. Lilly’s own oral version is still in the pipeline.
Still, the picture is messy. With U.S. pricing pressure cutting in, analysts have begun lowering sales estimates for the sector; Jefferies’ Michael Leuchten flagged back in February that “that $150 billion pie is gone.” On March 27, Lilly filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to review a whistleblower case linked to a $183 million Medicaid rebate ruling. Reuters
Lilly’s market cap holds near $686 billion, dip notwithstanding. Insilico’s pipeline hasn’t reached the clinic yet, unlike Lilly’s Taltz, Zepbound and Ebglyss—those drugs are already on the shelves.
