(Reuters) -Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co on Tuesday missed analysts’ estimates for first-quarter profit and cut its forecast for full-year adjusted profit due to lower demand for its COVID-19 drugs.
The company now expects adjusted full-year earnings of $7.80 to $8 per share, from its prior forecast of $7.75 to $8.40 per share.
The U.S. government stopped the distribution of Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody drug bamlanivimab as a standalone treatment therapy last month in response to new variants in the country that could be resistant to bamlanivimab when used alone.
The drugmaker has said it will focus on a combination of bamlanivimab and its other COVID-19 antibody drug etesevimab, which have been shown to together neutralize more COVID-19 variants than bamlanivimab alone.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.87 per share, missing estimates of $2.13 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net earnings fell to $1.36 billion, or $1.49 per share, in the quarter ended March 31 from $1.46 billion, or $1.60 per share, a year earlier.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Shailesh Kuber)
