JP Morgan 2026: Eli Lilly’s Continuing GLP-1 Success
Key Takeaways
- Eli Lilly is leveraging its GLP-1 success and direct-to-consumer strategies to strengthen its market position amid patent challenges.
- The company is diversifying its portfolio with drugs targeting obesity, diabetes, and other conditions, aiming to impact 1 billion people.
David Ricks detailed how the company plans to build on the success of Zepbound and Lilly Direct.
Eli Lilly came to the 44th annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference bolstered by a strong year.1 While the looming patent cliff still impacts that company’s upcoming strategy, Lilly found itself in a uniquely strong position this year due to the recent success of its GLP-1 offerings.
That, along with the company’s efforts to build up its direct-to-consumer offerings, seems to given the company a bit more runway than some of the other major pharma brands.
David A. Ricks, chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly, took the stage on Tuesday evening, where he opened the presentation on a positive note.
“It's an important year for Lilly,” he said, “since it's our 150th year in existence, which I think makes us the most valuable old company in America. In addition to celebrating, we have a lot to look forward to this year.”
He continued, “Last year at this conference, we were coming off a year where we had our first full year of obesity launch and there were lots of unknowns and uncertainties. We exit that year and enter ‘26 with a lot more knowns and certainty, from a portfolio perspective. Of course, Tirzepatide is an incredible molecule that's changing the lives of millions of people around the world, but we've been working hard on follow on pipeline products as well.”
However, Eli Lilly isn’t ignoring the upcoming pharma landscape. Like many other companies, the presentation focused on the company’s efforts to expand its pipeline. According to Lilly, it plans to change its portfolio from focused on a single marketed product to a broad portfolio of medicines across expanded indications.
Not surprisingly, the company plans to continue to expand and innovate its Lilly Direct platform for direct patient engagement.
Lilly has the following drugs in launch and late phase programs:
- Tirzepatide
- Orforglipron
- Eloralintide
- Retatrutide
- Brenipatide
These products, along with six additional clinical stage programs and 34 discovery programs, have the potential to help 1 billion people across the following indications:
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Obstructive sleep apnea
- Pain
- Cardiovascular
- Renal
- Hepatic
During the Q&A portion of the presentation, Ricks responded to a question about his key takeaways from 2025 by saying, “We think about both market growth and Lily's position within the US market. We entered the year (2025) with a lot of questions about access and supply because 2024 was a very choppy year. To really understand this category, we had trouble forecasting (as did many others). It was tough to understand what was happening; there was a lot of demand and excitement, but it was it was difficult. We stabilized all that and 2025 was a great year of execution with the company.”
He continued, “We brought a lot of capacity online and solved the supply issues. This gave prescribers and consumers a lot of confidence in starting therapy because if you didn't know if you could continue, what was the point of starting?”
The conversation turned to the success of Lilly Direct, with Ricks explaining, “We scaled this direct platform (Lilly Direct) to consumers which has been a success. Basically a million people a month go online and buy GLP-1 medicine directly from a drug manufacturer. Two years ago that would have sounded like a a crazy idea. Viles on Lily direct are basically the second top selling obesity drug next to Lily Zepbound in an auto injector, and that's a profound achievement in one year.”
The day before the presentation, Lilly announced a partnership with NVIDIA to create an AI lab to reinvent drug discovery.2 According to a press release, the partnership will bring together a multidisciplinary team of scientists, AI researchers, and engineers to work together on solving drug discovery problems.
“AI is transforming every industry, and its most profound impact will be in life sciences,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, in a press release. “NVIDIA and Lilly are bringing together the best of our industries to invent a new blueprint for drug discovery—one where scientists can explore vast biological and chemical spaces in silico before a single molecule is made.”
In the same press release, Ricks added, “For nearly 150 years, we’ve been working to bring life-changing medicines to patients. Combining our volume of data and scientific knowledge with NVIDIA’s computational power and model-building expertise could reinvent drug discovery as we know it. By bringing together world-class talent in a startup environment, we’re creating the conditions for breakthroughs that neither company could achieve alone.”
Sources
1. 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Eli Lilly. January 13, 2026.
2. NVIDIA and Lilly Announce Co-Innovation AI Lab to Reinvent Drug Discovery In the Age of AI. Eli Lilly. January 12, 2026.
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