Eli Lilly (the US drugmaker that sells the same ingredient, tirzepatide, as the diabetes drug Mounjaro and the obesity drug Zepbound) grew second-quarter revenue 48% from a year earlier to $23.0 billion. That ingredient is a peptide (a short chain of amino acids, smaller than a protein). These days the word gets attached to everything from new cancer and immune drugs to injections that claim to slow aging.
So it is easy to treat peptides as a miracle substance. But follow the money and these are three different stories: approved drugs sold in bulk, hopes still waiting on approvals and deals, and trendy shots with no evidence behind them.
- Obesity and diabetes peptides are already a huge business
Lilly's overall revenue rose mainly on the volume of Mounjaro and Zepbound. Mounjaro sales rose 91% to $9.9 billion in the second quarter, and US Zepbound sales rose 44% to $4.9 billion. In the same quarter volume rose 60%, while the prices Lilly actually collected (realized prices) fell 13%. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to $85 billion to $87 billion.
Its margin on a gross-profit basis (revenue minus the cost of making the drugs) was 85.8%. Put simply, it kept selling more even as prices fell, and most of each sale stayed as profit.
- Rival Novo Nordisk raised its outlook but still expects sales to fall
Novo Nordisk (the Danish maker of Wegovy and Ozempic) expects adjusted sales to fall 0% to 6% this year at constant exchange rates. That is an upgrade from its previous forecast of a 4% to 12% decline. The company said the prices it collects fell because of its most-favored-nation pricing deal with the US government (a pledge not to charge more than in other countries) and the end of exclusivity for semaglutide (Wegovy's ingredient) in some countries.
By market value (CompaniesMarketCap, as of Sept. 30), Lilly is worth about $1.055 trillion, 15th in the world. Novo went from about $384 billion at the end of 2024 to about $169 billion. In the US, the self-pay price of Wegovy in pill form is $149 to $299 a month.
- Peptides spread into cancer and immunity, and money also flows to makers
Johnson & Johnson (a US drugmaker) won US approval on March 18 for Icotyde, a psoriasis pill made from a peptide. J&J said it is the first oral targeted peptide that blocks an immune receptor (IL-23) that receives inflammation signals. In cancer, Novartis' Lutathera, which attaches a radioactive substance to a peptide and sends it to cancer cells, sold $225 million in the second quarter.
On Sept. 21, Australian drugmaker Telix agreed to buy Germany's ITM, a maker of radioisotopes (the radioactive material attached to cancer drugs) with a would-be rival to Lutathera, in a deal valued at $1.65 billion. Most of it is $1.25 billion in Telix shares plus $302 million of assumed net debt, and the deal is expected to close by the end of fiscal 2026. That candidate drug was rejected by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August over manufacturing issues. It is a case where manufacturing, not efficacy, decided the approval.
Samsung Biologics is pursuing an acquisition of PolyPeptide, a Swiss contract manufacturer of peptides. The deal is worth about 2.7 trillion won if all shares are tendered; the tender offer runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 12 local time, and it needs at least 66.7% of the shares. The company plans to complete the acquisition by the end of November.
- Many Korean related stocks are still waiting on approvals and deals
As of August, Mounjaro held 85% of Korea's obesity drug market and Wegovy 9%. Hanmi Pharmaceutical's homegrown peptide obesity drug 'Efe' is awaiting approval, and the industry expects a starting-dose factory price of around 150,000 won. The starting-dose factory prices are about 210,000 won for Wegovy (0.25mg) and about 270,000 won for Mounjaro (2.5mg).
In 2025, ahead of Mounjaro's Korean launch, Wegovy cut its supply prices by 10% to 42% depending on dose. It is a precedent for incumbent drug prices falling when a newcomer arrives. Peptron (a company whose technology makes one injection last longer) said in a Dec. 1, 2025 filing that the end of its technology evaluation with Lilly could be pushed back as far as Oct. 7, 2026. Its 2024 revenue was 3.1 billion won.
- 'Anti-aging peptides' are not approved drugs yet
Peptides popular for anti-aging and recovery, such as BPC-157, have not gone through large clinical trials. In 2023 the FDA put 19 of them on its no-compounding list, citing immune reactions, impurities and a lack of evidence. In February, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said about 14 would be released again.
In July an FDA advisory committee recommended allowing compounding of BPC-157, KPV and TB-500 by 8-6, and MOTS-c by 7-5. FDA career scientists objected that there was no evidence to judge them, and there were reports that most members who voted yes have ties to the peptide industry. The recommendation is not binding. Even if compounding is allowed, that does not make them FDA-approved drugs, nor is it a regulatory finding that they work.
- There was lobbying, and drug prices were among the disclosed issues
According to public lobbying disclosures, in the fourth quarter of 2025 Lilly spent $2.2 million and Novo $2.12 million on federal lobbying. These are each company's total lobbying, not money spent only on obesity drugs. The issues drugmakers lobbied on included 'the pricing of GLP-1 therapeutic products' and 'Medicare (the US public health insurance for older people) coverage of anti-obesity medicines.'
On the other side, a compounding pharmacy trade group is pushing to loosen peptide rules. What can be confirmed is that both the sellers of drugs and the compounders are each lobbying the government, and no more.
- BITPRESS Insight
Peptides are growing not because their effects are mysterious. It is because obesity and diabetes peptides created huge revenue, and that money is moving to manufacturers and to the next diseases.
So the same word 'peptide' covers three different layers: approved drugs that sell, hopes waiting on approvals and deals, and trendy anti-aging shots with no evidence. So far, only the first layer shows up in earnings.
The rule fits in one line. Read peptide news not by claims of efficacy, but by whether it is approved, whether the deal has closed, and who is actually selling it.
Sources
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Glossary
Peptide — A short chain of amino acids, smaller than a protein; GLP-1 obesity drugs are the best-known example.
Realized price — The price a company actually collects after discounts and rebates, not the list price.
Most-favored-nation pricing — A pricing approach that keeps US drug prices from being higher than in other rich countries.
Tender offer — A takeover method in which a buyer publicly offers to buy shares from shareholders at a set price for a set period.
Compounding — Pharmacies mixing ingredients to make a drug for an individual patient; being allowed to compound does not make it an FDA-approved drug.
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