New York, Jan 8, 2026, 18:23 EST — After-hours
Shares of Eli Lilly fell 2.1% on Thursday, trading between $1,070.16 and $1,133.06, and were last at $1,085.19 in after-hours activity after the drugmaker reported late-stage data on a Zepbound-Taltz combination in psoriatic arthritis. Lilly said 31.7% of patients on the combo met a dual goal — at least 50% lower disease activity and at least 10% weight loss after 36 weeks — compared with 0.8% on Taltz alone. Senior vice president Mark Genovese said the results support an “integrated treatment approach” for the inflammatory joint disease, which affects up to a third of people with psoriasis; nausea, diarrhea and constipation were among the most common side effects, Lilly said. Reuters
The readout matters because investors are trying to pin down what comes after the first wave of demand for blockbuster obesity shots. Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk have come to dominate the space, and each new data point now feeds straight into the debate over how wide these drugs can be used and how long the growth curve lasts.
Zepbound is part of a GLP-1 class — medicines that mimic gut hormones to curb appetite — and the market has started to treat pipeline breadth and reimbursement as a single story. That mix can move the stock quickly, even when the broader tape is quiet.
The broader healthcare sector was weak, with the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund down about 0.9%, while Novo Nordisk shares rose about 1.4%. The split left Lilly’s move looking more like a company-specific trade than a sector one.
On Wednesday, Lilly said it would buy Ventyx Biosciences for about $1.2 billion in cash, paying $14 per share to add oral candidates for inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Carter Gould said the price tag was “borderline immaterial” for Lilly and liked the company taking chances on “transformative opportunities” for relatively small sums. Lilly expects to close the deal in the first half of 2026. Reuters
A filing showed Lilly Endowment Inc, a 10% owner, sold 292,148 shares on Jan. 7 for about $322.4 million, leaving it with 91,896,978 shares.
But pricing remains a live risk for big drugmakers, and it can blunt even clean clinical wins. Global companies are bracing for tougher negotiations in Europe after President Donald Trump pressed U.S. price-cut deals, a theme investors expect to surface again in the coming days.
Next up is the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, which runs Jan. 12-15. Lilly is listed for a 2:15 p.m. Pacific (5:15 p.m. Eastern) slot on Jan. 13, according to the conference agenda, and traders will watch for any new detail on pipeline priorities, dealmaking and pricing.
