Loss of Patents Main Cause of Lower Earnings at Eli Lilly and Co (LLY)

The loss of Patents over the years, has been the main cause of lower earnings at Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY), the CEO of the company, Dr. John Lechleiter, said in an interview on CNBC. The loss of Zyprexa patent in the U.S caused the company the biggest blow as it also resulted in a big fine. The company’s focus now is shifting to investing in R&D as the company continues to look for new opportunities with great potential in the pharmaceutical space.

“We’ve had several years, starting back in 2011 with our product Zyprexa, which we lost the U.S Patents for late last year and then through this March when we lost Evista. We have had several years where we’ve lost Patents. It has been a roller coaster ride but we settled long, we will continue to invest in R&D,” said Mr. Lechleiter.

Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) is now increasing its product pipeline at the back of launching its gastric cancer drug, Cyramza, which has already received FDA approval. The CEO also said that the company is in line to launch other products in the future that should boost its product pipeline. Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) expects to resume growth at the end of the year on the back of new product lines according to its CEO.

“We launched Cyramza our drug for advanced gastric cancer a couple of months ago. We have other launches planned, we have other regulatory filings planned, so we are working our way through this period, and we aim with this new product launches to begin to resume growth as we come out of this year,” said  Mr. Lechleiter.

Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) will continue to push for research and development in various sectors of medicine, seen as one of the ways that the company can use to discover and develop new products. Partnerships with other small companies with a view of developing products for the mass market also remain a key target for the company according to the CEO.

Disclosure: none