Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) stock eked out a gain on the stock market Wednesday, but the company doesn't necessarily have itself to thank for this. One of its rival pharmaceutical companies posted strong annual results fueled largely by a product category Lilly is entering. That pushed Eli Lilly's share price marginally higher (by 0.1%), handily beating the 1.6% decline of the S&P 500 index.

That rival was Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO), which published its full-year 2023 figures well after market open Tuesday. These revealed that its sales rose a lofty 31% over 2022, and its net profit increased 51%.

Novo Nordisk is the company that developed and sells diabetes treatment Ozempic and weight loss drug Wegovy. Since the U.S. has high rates of both diabetes and obesity, the two medications have been explosively popular in this country. In fact, over 90% of total Wegovy sales came from patients in this country.

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Source Fool.com