Eli Lilly reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $23.0 billion on August 5, 2026, a 48% jump from the same period a year earlier, driven mainly by rising sales volumes of Mounjaro and Zepbound. The company also raised its full-year guidance alongside the release. (Eli Lilly)

Reported earnings per share (EPS) — the portion of profit allocated to each share of stock — rose 26% to $7.94. Non-GAAP EPS, which excludes certain items that Lilly considers non-representative of its core business, climbed 33% to $8.38. Both figures included $3.03 in acquired in-process research and development (IPR&D) charges. IPR&D charges are write-downs tied to the value of experimental drugs acquired through licensing or buyout deals; they directly reduce GAAP earnings when deal activity picks up. Strip out that drag, and the underlying operational earnings trajectory is even steeper than the headline numbers suggest.

The Q2 result builds on a first quarter in which Lilly's Key Products revenue reached $13.4 billion, or 68% of total Q1 revenue. U.S. revenue alone grew 43% to $12.1 billion in that period (PR Newswire, April 30, 2026). Mounjaro, Omvoh, and Zepbound led the Key Products basket in Q1, and the Q2 result confirms that Mounjaro and Zepbound remain the dominant growth engines. The trajectory of Mounjaro sales has been steepening: $3.09 billion in Q2 2024 (Reuters, August 8, 2024), $5.20 billion in Q2 2025 (Reuters, August 7, 2025), and $8.7 billion in Q1 2026 (Reuters, April 30, 2026). That Q1 2026 Mounjaro figure alone exceeded analyst expectations of $4.74 billion from a year earlier.

Behind the quarterly numbers, Lilly's drug pipeline advanced on two fronts with meaningful commercial implications. On July 23, 2026, the company announced that retatrutide succeeded in two additional Phase 3 obesity trials, TRIUMPH-2 and TRIUMPH-3 (Eli Lilly). In TRIUMPH-2, adults with obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes lost up to an average of 49.6 lbs (20.8% of body weight) at 80 weeks on retatrutide. TRIUMPH-3 enrolled adults with severe obesity and established cardiovascular disease, with or without type 2 diabetes. Positive cardiovascular-outcome data in this setting positions retatrutide beyond aesthetic weight loss and into cardiometabolic risk reduction, the same therapeutic-expansion thesis that has driven GLP-1 prescribing momentum.

On the oncology side, the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to Lilly's olomorasib for previously treated KRAS G12C-mutant advanced pancreatic cancer, announced August 3, 2026 (Eli Lilly). Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most difficult-to-treat solid tumors, and KRAS G12C inhibition — targeting a specific genetic mutation in a cancer-driving protein — has been an active area of competitive drug development. Breakthrough Therapy designation expedites FDA review and may shorten the path to market for olomorasib in this indication.

On the access front, Lilly and the U.S. government agreed to expand access to obesity medicines. Under the agreement, Medicare beneficiaries will pay no more than $50 per month for Zepbound (tirzepatide) in a multi-dose pen, available as early as April 1, 2026 (Eli Lilly Investor Relations). For a company whose revenue growth is concentrated in two incretin franchises — Mounjaro and Zepbound, both part of the GLP-1 drug class that mimics gut hormones to regulate blood sugar and appetite — lowering out-of-pocket cost for Medicare patients directly addresses the demand-side constraint that has capped GLP-1 adoption since launch.

The Q2 results cap a sequence in which Lilly has raised guidance in consecutive quarters. Full-year 2026 guidance was raised in Q1, and the company has now raised it again. For context on the compounding effect: Q4 2024 Zepbound sales were $1.91 billion and Mounjaro $3.53 billion (Reuters, February 6, 2025). Mounjaro Q4 2025 sales reached $7.41 billion (Reuters, February 4, 2026). The gap between those two quarterly figures, roughly one year apart, captures the magnitude of demand acceleration.

The broader context here is that the $3.03 IPR&D charge embedded in Q2 EPS warrants attention for anyone trying to model forward earnings. These charges are non-recurring in the sense that they relate to specific acquisition events, but Lilly has been a consistent acquirer of early-stage assets. Investors should expect IPR&D charges to persist as a recurring feature of reported earnings. The divergence between GAAP and non-GAAP EPS will remain structurally wide as long as the pipeline is fed through deal-making rather than purely organic discovery.