Health Care Up on Lilly's Blockbuster Earnings -- Health Care Roundup

Health-care companies rose after blockbuster earnings from Eli Lilly eased concerns that the prospects of anti-obesity drugs were overblown.

Lilly soared by 9% to test all-time highs after sales of its Zepbound obesity drug topped aggressive Wall Street targets. Shares of Danish rival Novo Nordisk rose, erasing losses associated with disappointing sales of its Wegovy anti-obesity product.

In a bad sign for Big Pharma outside the obesity niche, Charles River Laboratories International, which provides drug-development services, slid by one of the largest increments in four years, after it warned of waning pharma research spending plans.

Bausch Health's four-year-old plan to spin off eye-care subsidiary Bausch + Lomb is caught in a standoff between the pharmaceutical company's top shareholders, including Carl Icahn and Paulson & Co., and debtholders favoring a bankruptcy filing.

Biotech giant Gilead Sciences boosted its earnings projection.

Write to Rob Curran at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-08-24 1815ET