Lilly CEO ‘Encouraged’ By Trump Meeting As Volume – Not Prices – Drives 4Q Revenue Growth

Lilly’s new CEO David Ricks said he had confidence in the Trump Administration’s ability to understand and respond to the biopharma industry’s needs as well as address drug pricing concerns. The company’s fourth quarter earnings could insulate it from cost criticism, since sales volume drove revenue gains, not prices.

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Eli Lilly & Co. President and CEO David Ricks said that he left a meeting alongside other big biopharma executives with President Donald Trump on Jan. 31 with “some confidence” about working with the new administration on tax, regulation and drug pricing issues.

Lilly may be cushioned somewhat from criticism about its drug price increase practices, since the company’s 7% revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2016 was driven largely by sales volume rather than price hikes. Pharmaceutical product sales volume jumped 9% (15% in the US) while drug prices slipped 1% globally despite a 1% rise in the US

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