Lilly will be world’s first trillion-dollar drug company, billionaire investor Ken Langone says
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Billionaire investor and Home Depot founder Ken Langone has high expectations for the future of Indianapolis-based drugmaker Lilly.
“I think Lilly will be the first trillion-dollar drug company in history,” Langone told CNBC on Wednesday.
Lilly surpassed Johnson & Johnson in May to become the world’s most valuable pharmaceutical company and is currently worth more than $500 billion.
Langone, who sold a medical electronics company named Ivac to Lilly in 1977, believes in the Indy-based company because of its strong leadership, robust talent pipeline, and continued investment in research and development.
“God bless [former CEO] John Lechleiter. In the dark years when everything was falling off the cliff, he was firm in his commitment to spending the money on R&D and protecting the dividend,” Langone told CNBC.
The billionaire businessman, also a longtime Lilly stockholder, says he is also impressed by Lilly’s performance on the stock market. Strong sales of drugs including Mounjaro and Zepbound sent the company’s shares soaring 62% since January, according to Business Insider, and the company was trading at around $570 per share Thursday afternoon.
Lilly’s success is also powering its future growth. In November, the company announced plans to build a $2.5 billion manufacturing facility in Germany to make injectable drugs.