Eli Lilly's (NYSE: LLY) insatiable hunger to squeeze even more money out of its best-selling therapies is starting to look downright impressive. With its research and clinical groups firing on all cylinders, and management shoveling more funding into the fuel tank, the pace of its growth is more likely to accelerate than it is to slow down.

And if the pharma's latest gambit pays off, it will probably start to put pressure on (NYSE: ABBV), despite the latter company's focus on developing treatments for what's largely a different grouping of health conditions. Let's elaborate on this prediction and examine the reasons it's credible.

Lilly's drug Zepbound, which treats obesity, is based on the molecule called tirzepatide. Sales of Zepbound were more than $1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2024 alone, so it's a highly lucrative product. On top of that, the same molecule is also the active component of its medicine Mounjaro, which treats type 2 diabetes -- a drug that brought in more than $3 billion in sales in the same period.

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Source Fool.com