NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 17:16 ET — After-hours
- Eli Lilly shares eased in late trading as investors weighed fresh drug-pricing headlines.
- Attention stayed on early-2026 pricing resets in the U.S. and China for major diabetes and weight-loss medicines.
- U.S. markets are shut on New Year’s Day, putting the next full read on Friday’s session.
Eli Lilly and Co (LLY) shares slipped in after-hours trading on Wednesday. The stock was down about 0.5% at $1,074.68, after trading between $1,074.39 and $1,083.25 during the day on roughly 1.5 million shares.
Drug pricing has moved back to the center of the investment case for large-cap pharmaceuticals as Washington pushes for lower costs and companies adjust prices in overseas growth markets. For Lilly, price assumptions matter because investors have priced in years of strong growth from its GLP‑1 franchise, a hormone-based drug class used for diabetes and weight loss.
The company’s diabetes drug Mounjaro and obesity drug Zepbound have helped drive expectations for expanding demand well beyond traditional diabetes care. Any signal that prices are being reset — especially through government negotiations — can quickly feed into how investors model future earnings.
A Reuters report on Wednesday said drugmakers plan to raise U.S. prices on at least 350 branded medicines on Jan. 1, even as the Trump administration presses for cuts. The same report flagged a more than 40% cut in the U.S. list price — the sticker price before rebates and insurer discounts — for Jardiance, a diabetes drug Boehringer Ingelheim sells with Lilly, after the government negotiated a lower Medicare price for 2026. Medicare is the U.S. health program for people 65 and older, and the companies cut Jardiance’s Medicare price by two-thirds under the deal, while neither firm immediately responded to a request for comment on the list-price move.
Reuters also reported this week that Novo Nordisk and Lilly are lowering prices of their top-selling obesity and diabetes shots, Wegovy and Mounjaro, in China, with the change set to start Jan. 1. A Meituan listing showed a projected cost of about 445 yuan ($63) for a 10 mg Mounjaro injector pen, down from 2,180 yuan, as drugmakers push to capture a market where Reuters cited forecasts that more than 65% of the population could be overweight or obese by 2030. Novo confirmed it was adjusting Wegovy prices, while Lilly did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For Lilly, lower prices in China highlight a trade-off investors will keep revisiting in 2026. Price cuts can widen access and boost volumes, but they also compress revenue per dose unless demand growth is strong enough to offset it.
Broader market tone was soft into the close, with thin liquidity typical of the holiday week. “it’s perfectly fine in any bull market to have moments of cost,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity, in a Reuters market report that pointed to profit-taking when trading conditions are light. Reuters
Even with Wednesday’s dip, Lilly shares are up about 40% year-to-date, according to Yahoo Finance data.
U.S. equity markets are closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day, with trading set to resume on Friday. That puts the next full reaction to any Jan. 1 pricing changes into the Jan. 2 session.
Macro data is also back on deck early in the new year, with the December U.S. employment report scheduled for Jan. 9 at 8:30 a.m. ET, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
Lilly’s investor calendar lists a fourth-quarter earnings call on Feb. 4, when investors will look for 2026 demand and supply updates for its GLP‑1 drugs and any pricing commentary.
For now, the stock’s year-end drift underscored how much the debate has shifted from pure supply constraints to price and access — both in the United States and abroad. Those questions are likely to shape early 2026 trading in Lilly and its main rival, Novo Nordisk.
