Lilly

Founded by Eli Lilly in 1876, and now the 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world, the company has been reinventing and intensively restructuring itself in the last few years.

The company's reforming zeal has been spurred on by the imminent patent expiry of its flagship brand, Zyprexa.

The drug is currently the world's top-selling antipsychotic, but US generic competition arrived in 2011, and 2012 will see generics bite even more deeply into revenues.

In 2009, the approval in the US and Europe of the anti-clotting drug Effient (co-marketed with Daiichi-Sankyo) was a major milestone for the company.

The FDA approved the drug for the reduction of thrombotic cardiovascular events (including stent thrombosis) in patients with acute coronary syndromes who are managed with an artery-opening procedure known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). PCI usually includes the placement of a stent to help keep the artery open.

The company cut costs and restructured, but has made strategic acquisitions.

Lilly bought ImClone in 2008 for $6.5 billion, and the company says the acquisition will make it one of the world's leaders in cancer treatment, an increasingly important field in the pharma industry.

The Year Ahead: 2012

Lilly is forecasting a drop in revenue and profits for 2012, as it prepares for life without its blockbuster antipsychotic Zyprexa.

Zyprexa (olanzapine) is licensed to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and is Lilly’s biggest selling drug, bringing in $5 billion in 2010.

But the drug lost its patent in most major markets in October, and Lilly is predicting that generics will decimate sales, which it says will plummet by $3 billion in 2012.

To make matters worse, the expiry of Lilly’s second biggest selling drug, antidepressant Cymbalta (duloxetine) will also begin in major markets at the end of this year.

This double whammy has led Lilly to forecast 2012 revenues of between $21.8 to $22.8 billion, down from revenues of $23.08 billion in 2010.

Lechleiter said there were three key elements to the company’s ‘bridging’ strategy to overcome the losses and resume growth with new products.

“First and foremost, we are replenishing and advancing our pipeline. We’ve successfully rebuilt our mid- to late-stage pipeline to position Lilly for growth post-2014, with 12 assets now in Phase III, exceeding our goal of 10 by the end of 2011.

“Second, we’re investing to drive growth in the key brands that don’t lose patent protection during this period and in our countercyclical growth engines that don’t have the same cycle of patent expirations as our US and European pharma businesses. These include Japan, select emerging markets and our animal health business.

“Third, we continue to drive productivity gains across our business to fund the R&D necessary to fuel our future growth, recapitalise our physical assets and maintain our dividend at least at its current level.”

Lilly has already said that it wants to maintain its R&D budget – where other firms are making cuts – and Lechleiter is hoping this will pay off in the long term.

View Lilly's pipeline