Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & President, Eli Lilly
Ricks on the State of Eli Lilly and Co. & What's Next
The latest out of global pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. CEO Dave Ricks joins us for perspective on the post-COVID workforce, the company's drug pipeline and potential for future growth.
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About David Ricks
David Ricks, chair and CEO of Eli Lilly, has been discussing the company's strong financial performance and the launch of its oral obesity drug, Zepbound (orforglipron), during recent earnings calls and media appearances. In the first quarter of 2026, Lilly reported revenue of $19.80 billion, a 56% year-over-year increase, which Ricks attributed to high global demand for Mounjaro and Zepbound. He noted that the oral pill, approved by the FDA and launched under the trade name Zepbound, had more than 20,000 patients using it within its first month on the market. Ricks described the launch as "the first new brand and new molecule launched for obesity in the modern era" and said the reception and buzz were good. Ricks has also addressed pricing and access issues. He stated that Lilly supports the Medicare GLP-1 bridge program, which caps out-of-pocket costs for seniors at $50 per month, and argued that obesity medications should be broadly covered by insurance. He commented that the obesity market shows "expansionary volume perhaps nonlinear to price reductions" due to the out-of-pocket nature of many purchases. Additionally, Ricks discussed Lilly's direct-to-consumer model, Lilly Direct, which offers discounts of more than 50% off list price, and noted that the company is active in business development, having announced agreements to acquire multiple clinical-stage companies.
Transcript (13 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Gerry Dick0:04
Hello and welcome to Inside Indiana Business... I'm Gerry Dick. Poised for a decade of historic growth... that's the view from Eli Lilly and Company CEO Dave Ricks, who says the company's innovation-based strategy will continue to fuel a pipeline of new products in areas like diabetes, obesity and oncology. Earlier this month, another encouraging sign for Lilly---and downtown Indianapolis---a return to in-person work for thousands of office workers. With more on the Lilly outlook and work in a post-COVID world, I'm pleased to welcome Dave Ricks back to the show. Thanks for joining us.
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David Ricks0:40
Great to be with you again.
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Gerry Dick0:41
Want to talk about the outlook. You had interesting things to say to the Economic Club of Indiana this week. I mentioned in March, you came back to work, Lilly came back to work in full force. Folks have been working through the pandemic, doing great work. Now you're fully back to work.
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David Ricks0:59
That's right. That started March 1st. Making new medicines is a team sport, we need to do that together. We considered new flexibilities for employees that they began to appreciate during the pandemic and find the best of both worlds. For the downtown economy, you know, Lilly is back in the office, in the middle of the week is particularly busy for us. That's how we want it when we run into each other in the hallways. We come up with new ideas and advance the company that way.
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Gerry Dick1:31
That impact downtown, it's substantial to get the Lilly workforce downtown for sure. I mentioned the Economic Club of Indiana. You were talking about the forward-looking view, a decade of historic growth. Talk about that.
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David Ricks1:46
The company's been thriving and despite challenges all around us, we've risen to the occasion. So proud of our team. Five years ago, we set out to really accelerate the company. We added about $10 billion to the top line of our pharmaceutical business. The stock has appreciated over 300% in that period of time, really top of the charts in the industry. And that's all driven by creating new medicines for tough diseases that really help people. Of course, medicines for COVID and increasingly, medicines for diabetes, cancers and as you mentioned, for Alzheimer's disease are driving the growth of the company. An exciting time for science, an exciting time for the company as we address the most difficult health challenges in the world.
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Gerry Dick2:40
Several years ago, you said 'We want to launch 20 medicines in ten years.' You're well on that path.
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David Ricks2:47
I think we're seven years into that and launched 16 or so. Well on our way to hitting that goal. Okay, what's next? That'd put us at the top of the pharmaceutical industry at that rate. We've done that now, what else can we do? Can we go to three? How more productive can we be? We're optimistic we can continue to find another gear.
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Gerry Dick3:12
You also talked about, in your speech this week, challenges facing Indiana. You talked about Indiana being a business-friendly state and good state to do business in, but some challenges when it comes to education and the health of Hoosiers, workforce and those types of issues.
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David Ricks3:30
Indiana's been our home for almost 146 years and will remain that way. We've had investment announcements outside the state and I get a lot of calls about those, people want to check in on that, but two things are true. One is, when Lilly does well, the state can really do well. We know there's a lot of spillover into the economy, Lilly endowment is very generous, they're our largest shareholder. Many good things are happening because Lilly's been doing well, but we need a thriving environment to do well and we'd like to grow here. So, just calling attention to kind of in the next decade, the new economy, what we need to pay attention to as a business community and as a government, policy-making community, which goes beyond the traditional measures of success, like low tax rate and low cost of living. Now we need to think about, is our workforce ready to engage in businesses that are very technologically based. Information technology or pharmaceutical technology. And overall, business costs in the state are not so driven by taxes anymore, they're pretty low, but rather by healthcare and workforce costs. So, how can we be better at matching skills and having a really new business-friendly environment, which goes beyond the previous scope of what I think a lot of policymakers used to think.
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Gerry Dick4:48
And you believe that --- whether for Lilly or any other company, as they look to grow, expand, relocate, those are things they're looking for.
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David Ricks4:57
Yeah, I think that's what a cutting edge environment looks like and we do really well top ten on many of the traditional markers like cost of business and tax. We're in the bottom ten on these other factors. It's time we pay attention to that and underpinning that are two other factors which, like them or leave them, are with us. One, the drive to have a green economy and giving businesses the choice of how they buy their energy, renewable or not. And inclusion---and here, everyone thinks about minority group members, that's a key thing, particularly in urban settings, like Indianapolis, but increasingly in the state including rural areas. How can we keep kids in the state who want to work in Indiana and include them in our economy? And the new topic, of course, immigration---people who aren't Hoosiers yet, but could be. We need population growth to reach our potential and many skilled people that want to work hard should think of Indiana as a destination. I'm not sure we always advertise it that way.
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Gerry Dick5:59
Interesting perspective and perspective too on...