Indianapolis (US), Aug 8 (AP) Eli Lilly's diabetes treatment Mounjaro, which is widely used for weight loss, raked in nearly USD 1 billion in second-quarter sales, or more than USD 200 million above what Wall Street had expected.

Shares of the drugmaker soared 17 per cent to an all-time-high on Tuesday after Lilly said Mounjaro sales swelled more than 70 per cent since the first quarter to USD 980 million.

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Almost all of that came from the US, and the company said significant demand was leading to delays in filling orders for some doses.

Analysts expected the drug to bring in about USD 740 million during the quarter, according to FactSet.

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Executives said on Tuesday that they expect tight supplies will lead to some spot shortages of Mounjaro through year's end. Lilly is building a new manufacturing plant in North Carolina and expanding at another location there.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved Mounjaro at the end of last year's second quarter to treat type 2 diabetes, but analysts see a lot of potential for it in the booming market for weight-loss treatments, and doctors have already been prescribing it off-label for that.

Regulators are currently deciding whether to also make weight loss an approved use. Lilly said earlier this year that the injectable treatment helped people with type 2 diabetes who were overweight or obese to lose up to 16 per cent of their body weight, or more than 34 pounds, over nearly 17 months.

If approved, Lilly's drug would compete with Novo Nordisk's popular weight loss drug Wegovy — also sold to manage diabetes under the brand Ozempic — in a wave of new options that is changing the treatment of obesity.

Separately, Novo said Tuesday that early results from a large, late-stage study of Wegovy showed that it cut the risk of serious heart problems by 20 per cent. That was better than expected.

The Danish drugmaker said weekly injections of the highest dose of the medication known generically as semaglutide slashed the risk of heart attack, stroke and heart disease-related deaths in people who were overweight or obese and had known cardiovascular disease, but not type 2 diabetes.

Results from the trial, conducted on more than 17,000 people in 41 countries, could bode well for all drugs in Wegovy's class because it may make insurers and other health care bill payers more likely to cover them, Leerink analyst David Risinger said in a research note.

It also could pave the way for wider use beyond weight loss, doctors said.

Analysts have predicted that Lilly's drug, known generically as tirzepatide, could become one of the top-selling drugs ever, with annual sales topping USD 50 billion.

In the recently completed second quarter, Mounjaro sales helped lift Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. to a better-than-expected performance.

Overall, Lilly's profit jumped 85 per cent in the second quarter to more than USD 1.76 billion. Revenue rose 28 per cent to USD 8.31 billion. Adjusted earnings totalled USD 2.11 per share.

Analysts expected, on average, earnings of USD 1.98 per share on USD 6.86 billion in revenue.

Shares of Lilly jumped more than 17 per cent, or nearly USD 80, to USD 533.83 in midday trading. Broader indexes slipped.

That eclipsed the stock's previous all-time-high price of USD 469.87, which Lilly hit at the end of June. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)