Eli Lilly and Company

On May 10, 1876, Colonel Eli Lilly, then 38, founded the pharmaceutical manufacturing business Eli Lilly, Chemist, in a rented building on West Pearl Street in Indiana. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.⁠[1]

In 1880, Eli Lilly and Co. became a corporation and moved to larger facilities on McCarty Street. In 1890, Colonel Lilly turned over much of the management to his son, Josiah K. Lilly Sr. In 1932, Josiah’s son Eli Lilly succeeded his father as president.⁠[2]

The company was incorporated in 1901 under the laws of Indiana.⁠[3]

In May 1922, the company signed a formal agreement with the University of Toronto that gave it a one-year exclusive license for the U.S. market. Research director George H. A. Clowes led the collaboration for Lilly. On October 15, 1923, Lilly insulin was released for distribution by physician prescription.⁠[4]

Lilly chemist George Walden developed a method to purify insulin and led the company’s efforts to mass-produce it. In 1923, Lilly began full-scale animal insulin production based on isoelectric separation and started selling Iletin, the first commercial insulin product.⁠[5]

By the 1960s, the company had launched the first of a line of antibiotics in a new class, the cephalosporins, adding Ceclor in the 1970s. Prozac (fluoxetine) was introduced in the 1980s, and the schizophrenia drug Zyprexa followed in the 1990s.⁠[6]

As the main U.S. maker of animal-derived insulin, Lilly backed several efforts to make synthetic insulin, and Genentech joined the race in 1978. In 1982, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Humulin, the first marketable product created through recombinant DNA technology.⁠[7]

In January 1994, the company announced its exit from the medical device industry. It later planned to dispose of its roughly 82% stake in Guidant through a split-off, an offer for shareholders to exchange Lilly stock for Guidant shares.⁠[8]

The oversubscribed exchange offer, covering the 57,600,000 Guidant shares Lilly owned, expired at midnight on September 18, 1995. The company said this “completes the separation of Guidant from Lilly’s core pharmaceutical business.”⁠[9]

In 1997, the company’s common stock was listed on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges. At the end of that year, it had approximately 31,100 employees.⁠[3]

On November 24, 2008, the company completed its acquisition of ImClone Systems at $70.00 per share in cash, having acquired 95.5 percent of its outstanding shares. The deal gave Lilly the opportunity to generate additional value from ERBITUX, a targeted cancer therapy.⁠[10]

The total purchase price was approximately $6.5 billion. At the end of 2008, the company employed about 40,500 people, about 19,600 of them outside the United States.⁠[11]

On January 15, 2009, the company agreed to plead guilty and pay $1.415 billion to resolve allegations of off-label promotion of the antipsychotic Zyprexa, including a $515 million criminal fine and up to $800 million in a civil settlement. It also signed a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement.⁠[12]

The company then pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of marketing a medicine for unapproved uses. Prosecutors said Lilly promoted Zyprexa for sleep disorders and dementia in elderly patients, although it was approved for schizophrenia and certain types of bipolar disorder.⁠[13]

On July 27, 2016, the company announced that John C. Lechleiter, CEO since April 2008, would retire as president and CEO effective December 31, 2016, and as chairman effective May 31, 2017. The board elected David A. Ricks, president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, as president and CEO effective January 1, 2017.⁠[14]

Elanco Animal Health completed its initial public offering in September 2018. In February 2019, the company announced an exchange offer to dispose of its approximately 293 million Elanco shares, about 80.2% of Elanco’s outstanding common stock.⁠[15]

On March 11, 2019, the company completed the disposition of its remaining 80.2 percent ownership of Elanco, acquiring about 65 million of its own shares in the exchange offer.⁠[16]

On January 7, 2019, the company announced an agreement to acquire Loxo Oncology for $235.00 per share in cash, or approximately $8.0 billion. Loxo’s portfolio included Vitrakvi (larotrectinib), an oral TRK inhibitor developed and commercialized with Bayer, and LOXO-292, an oral RET inhibitor.⁠[17]

The acquisition was completed in February 2019 for $6.92 billion, net of cash acquired.⁠[16]

On May 13, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Mounjaro (tirzepatide) injection, given once weekly, as an adjunct to diet and exercise for adults with type 2 diabetes. Lilly described it as the first approved GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist. Its label carries a Boxed Warning about thyroid C-cell tumors.⁠[18]

In March 2023, the company announced 70% list-price cuts for Humalog and Humulin and capped monthly out-of-pocket costs for insured patients using Lilly insulin at $35. CEO David A. Ricks said, “The aggressive price cuts we’re announcing today should make a real difference for Americans with diabetes.”⁠[19]

On November 8, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatide) injection for chronic weight management in adults with obesity (BMI of 30 or greater) or overweight (BMI of 27 or greater) with at least one weight-related condition, alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity.⁠[20]

On November 21, 2025, the company’s shares rose as much as 1.7%, lifting its market value to about $1 trillion. It became the first health-care company to cross that threshold and the second U.S. company outside technology to do so, as investors bet heavily on its weight-loss medicines.⁠[21]

At the end of 2025, the company employed approximately 50,000 people, about 27,000 of them outside the United States. It operates in one segment, human pharmaceutical products, with research focused on cardiometabolic health, immunology, neuroscience and oncology. David A. Ricks is chair, president and CEO.⁠[22]

On February 4, 2026, the company announced 2025 revenue of $65.18 billion, up 45% from 2024, net income of $20.64 billion, up 95%, and diluted earnings per share of $22.95. Mounjaro revenue was $22.97 billion and Zepbound revenue $13.54 billion. Its 2026 revenue guidance was $80 billion to $83 billion.⁠[23]

On April 1, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved orforglipron, Lilly’s oral GLP-1 drug branded Foundayo, for obesity and other weight-related conditions, after a 50-day review under a new program aimed at cutting approval times. Cash prices range from $149 to $349 a month by dose.⁠[24]