THE LILLY PALOOZA

Not long ago, it looked like the best days of Eli Lilly were behind it. But tirzepatide, a drug for diabetes and obesity, has sent the 148-year-old pharma giant on awild ride. It’s now the ninth most valuable company in the world.

- Erika Fry

THE GOOD NEWS about donanemab, Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug, reached CEO Dave Ricks on July 2 as he was hiking in a remote part of Colorado.

The pharmaceutical company had slogged for 35 years and spent $8 billion to develop an effective treatment for the terrible memory-robbing disease. So when much-longed-for news of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medicine finally arrived—in the middle of the Indianapolis pharmaceutical company’s annual shutdown week, with the CEO and most of his 20,000 U.S. employees on holiday—Ricks dialed into FaceTime for a quick impromptu celebration.

Two of his top science deputies toasted the achievement with their boss, raising glasses of Champagne as Ricks took a swig from his bottle of water. The monoclonal antibody soon to be branded as Kisunla and prescribed at a cost of $32,000 a year is not a cure for Alzheimer’s—it is meant to slow the early progression of the disease. Still, Ricks says, its approval is a sign that Lilly’s processes are working.

“For us, it’s a lesson in determination,” the 57-year-old CEO tells me, back from vacation a week later. “Many times we could have given up, and we didn’t.”

Indeed, just over a decade ago there were serious concerns about the future of the 148-year-old company. But there is plenty to celebrate lately at Eli Lilly.