Is Eli Lilly Stock a Buy After a Brand New Approval?

Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) has not performed well this year, with its shares down 13% to date. However, the company's stock recently jumped following the approval of a brand-new medicine. Could this be the start of a sustained rebound for the pharmaceutical giant?

Strengthening its lead in its core market

On April 1, Eli Lilly announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved Foundayo, an oral GLP-1 medicine for weight loss. There are several notable things about this milestone. First, Foundayo is only the second oral anti-obesity medicine to earn regulators' blessing in the U.S. Second, unlike its competitor, oral Wegovy, Foundayo can be taken anytime and without food or water restrictions.

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Eli Lilly is already the leader in the rapidly growing weight-loss market thanks to Zepbound, but the launch of this new medicine will help solidify its position in this niche. Foundayo likely won't just cannibalize Zepbound's sales. As the company has argued, many patients who otherwise need weight loss drugs have been sitting on the sidelines because they prefer avoiding injectable therapies like Zepbound, which also comes with some storage requirements.

Further, the cost of weight loss drugs has been another obstacle to widespread adoption. Foundayo could address these problems. The pill helps patients avoid injecting themselves and doesn't have the same storage restrictions. Also, it will cost as little as $149 per month for the lowest dose without insurance, whereas self-paying patients on Zepboud must pay at least $299 per month.

Even with Foundayo's lower efficacy compared to Zepbound, it should gain significant traction and help Eli Lilly expand its reach in this market. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical leader is working on other weight-loss drugs to help it target even more market niches. For instance, Eli Lilly is developing retatrutide, a medicine that posted outstanding phase 3 results in helping patients lose weight, while also helping relieve knee pain.

Retatrutide could be ideal for people with very high body mass indexes who don't want or aren't eligible for bariatric surgeries, and for whom other weight loss options simply aren't aggressive enough. In short, even as many companies chase Eli Lilly in this space, the company's lineup and pipeline should allow it to remain the top player for the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, Eli Lilly is expanding its lineup through licensing deals and acquisitions, boasts several promising medicines outside its core area of expertise, is investing heavily in artificial intelligence to boost its innovation capabilities, and has improved its margins in recent years. All these factors make the stock a buy for long-term investors, especially after its 13% decline this year.

Prosper Junior Bakiny has positions in Eli Lilly. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.