Lilly, Novartis report 3Q17 results

Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) and Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) reported earnings on Tuesday which outpaced analyst expectations, and provided updates on their respective animal health and ophthalmic units.

Lilly reported EPS of $1.05 on sales of $5.7 billion, beating consensus estimates of $1.03 and $5.5 billion, respectively. The pharma highlighted sales of diabetes drugs Basaglar insulin glargine and Jardiance empagliflozin as revenue drivers. Sales of Jardiance were up 168% from 3Q16, while sales of Basaglar jumped 650%. Jardiance is a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor. Basaglar, a basal insulin analog, is a follow-on biologic to Lantus insulin glargine from Sanofi (Euronext:SAN; NYSE:SNY). ...