Eli Lilly and Company LLY

The business

Lilly makes prescription medicines. It has made insulin for a century and cancer and immunology drugs for decades, but the company that exists today is essentially two products: Mounjaro, tirzepatide sold for diabetes, and Zepbound, the same molecule sold for weight loss. Both work by mimicking gut hormones that regulate appetite and blood sugar.

The manufacturing is the moat, not the molecule. These are injectable peptides requiring enormous sterile fill-finish capacity, and Lilly has spent years building it while demand exceeded supply.