The pharmaceutical industry isn’t the first place investors turn to when looking for high-growth stocks. However, some companies in the field look so promising that they could deliver well-above-average returns through the end of the decade.
There are several candidates here, but two of the most attractive today are Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO). Read on to find out why these two giants could be the best performers in the industry through 2030.
The best of enemies
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are rivals in the drug market for diabetes treatment, a competition that spans many decades. Over the years, the two players have continued to innovate, and the pharmaceutical giants are still at it. One of Eli Lilly’s newer diabetes medicines is Mounjaro, first approved in the U.S. in May 2022. Mounjaro is a therapy with a novel mechanism of action that generated an $5 billion in sales last year, its first full year on the market.
Novo Nordisk isn’t too far behind, though. Its diabetes medicine, Ozempic, has been around for a little longer, but its sales are growing fast. In the first quarter, Ozempic generated revenue of 27.8 billion Danish kroner, or DKK ($4 billion), an increase of 42% year over year. Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic will be among these companies’ biggest growth drivers through 2030.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are also the leaders in the obesity market. Eli Lilly’s Zepbound (which has the same active ingredient as Mounjaro) and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy (with the same active ingredient as Ozempic) have become household names. Investors should be excited about both medicines: The weight loss drug market will grow rapidly in the coming years. According to some projections, it will be worth $44 billion by 2030 — up from $2.5 billion in 2022.
Though many companies are looking to challenge Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk in this field, don’t underestimate the innovative potential of drugmakers with experience in successfully developing breakthroughs in a particular therapeutic area. Even if other competitors enter the market (and some…
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