Eli Lilly raises 2021 profit forecast

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Shares of the drugmaker were up 2.3% in premarket trading after it also forecast 2022 profit in the range of $8.50 to $8.65, above analysts estimates of $8.18.

Last month, the U.S. government bought 614,000 additional doses of its COVID-19 antibody therapy, a cocktail of bamlanivimab and etesevimab, for $1.29 billion.

The U.S. government had bought 388,000 additional doses of Lilly’s antibody therapy in September, when infections surged due to the fast-spreading Delta variant

The company said it now expected COVID-19 therapies to bring in about $2.1 billion in sales in 2021, up from an earlier forecast of $1.3 billion.

Lilly said it expects adjusted earnings per share to between $8.15 and $8.20, up from an earlier range of between $7.95 and $8.05.

The company said it expects 2021 revenue to be in the range of $28.0 billion to $28.3 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $27.2 billion to $27.6 billion.