Dave A Ricks

Chair & CEO @EliLillyandCo. Building on 150 years of advancing human health by delivering breakthrough medicines and expanding access worldwide.

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Thanks for surfacing. Macros plus resistance is the way.

[Michael Morelli @morellifit]

This new tirzepatide study is eye-opening.

120 adults took the drug for 40 weeks, and half of them also lifted weights 3x a week. Both groups lost about 50 lbs.

But when they tested strength, the two groups looked nothing alike.

Here's the breakdown: (1/11)

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Dissent is obviously key to the scientific process, I often worry about herd mentality in decision processes we have, but I suspect its much worse in academic medicine because reputation and hierarchy are the currency of the realm. That said this industry is really hard because differentiating between good ideas that just need more work (better drug, better experiment ala Amyloid Beta ) and bad ideas that should be dropped (dead end biologic target that is drugged well enough ala CETPi) is non obvious much of the time, until it isn’t. Too often after a ton of money and time invested in human CTs. So just listening to the dissenters isn’t good enough and neither is over simplified pattern recognition across biology - designing POCs that really test the idea much better.

[NEJM @NEJM]

Presented at #ACR26:

The WOMAC pain score and body weight decreased significantly more with retatrutide than with placebo in patients with painful knee osteoarthritis and obesity. Full results of the phase 3 TRIUMPH-4 and TRIUMPH-1-OA trials: https://t.co/wia960WXVw

@ACRheum

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Convincingly negative result here. IL6 looks almost the same. Not often 2 of the most anticipated targets in CV go down at once. There will be lots of Monday morning quarterbacking these bets but it’s why we do the studies and they were reasoned bets, uncertain outcomes despite genetics and biomarkers with asymmetric value if positive. Drug development isn’t rocket science, its actually much harder.

In the near term, beyond LDL optimization (looks like real benefit), Incretin therapy in obesity now the one big idea left on the board to reduce CVD death and disability at scale. Surmount MMO is coming! https://t.co/cgceDo74rW

Pelacarsen and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients with High Lipoprotein(a) | New England Journal of Medicine https://t.co/kWfyy3jKef

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Obesity is the root disease for over 200 chronic diseases, it impacts more than 1 in 7 people on the planet and more options are needed. Science doing a good job here making the case for much more innovation in Obesity care. It’s still very early, yet we can see the impact that is possible. Lilly doing our part to lead on new mechanisms, more convenient, more durable and more accessible weight loss solutions for the world.

Obesity management medications: The way forward | Science https://t.co/tzJDkydxrO

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

I’ll take that bet.

[Vinod Khosla @vkhosla]

Agree 100% but unlikely it will come from the big bio companies

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

@IUHoosiers Indiana winners supporting each other. Hoo Hoo Hoo!!

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

@PurdueSports EliLets go Boilers! 👏👏. 👏👏👏

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

We have. Our estimates are that ASCVD causes 1.4 trillion in global spend on healthcare (number 1 killer) and conservative estimates would place LDL control as capable of reducing that number by 1/3, so roughly 1/2 a trillion in global productivity per year. US is perhaps $150B of that. We need to demonstrate long term safety and durability of the edit - starting with familial hypercholesterolemia. That US population is around 700K which is something and alone could be several billion per year in cost offsets. These discussions are core to considering value and pricing for a very new idea - widely used one and done medicine for very common disease. We will have more to say and do here as the data matures, first things first, prove it works and is safe.

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

In other news, US projected to save billions expanding access to Obesity care according to independent group at USC 👇🏻@DrOz @DrOzCMS

https://t.co/7SIZ54bImz

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Proud of TEAM Lilly, we are executing well. While 2026 is setting up to be a year to remember I am even more excited about our future…
- 4 Incretin projects in phase 3 now, raising the bar of what’s possible in weight loss, reducing side effect burden and radically expanding indications caused by obesity. We are building the tools to solve overweight and obesity, and hopefully the 200 terrible diseases it causes, at a global scale.
-Rapidly expanding Cancer portfolio in B cell driven disease, Breast and Ovarian cancer as well as Lung and more.
- Treating or preventing the worst neurodegenerative diseases we know
- Unlocking the potential of one and done therapy for common diseases like lymphomas, wet AMD, childhood deafness and even something as common as high LDL cholesterol.
The future of biomedical technology is going to amaze.

[Eli Lilly and Company @EliLillyandCo]

Today we announced third-quarter 2026 results. Every quarter is a chance to show what a medicine company can do for people: discover what's next, make it at scale, and get it to the people who need it. https://t.co/pNcS6UX5B7

[Eli Lilly and Company @EliLillyandCo]

In a head-to-head Phase 3 study in adults with type 2 diabetes, our investigational triple agonist delivered greater reductions in A1C and more than double the weight loss compared to an injectable GLP-1 at 80 weeks. Read more: https://t.co/7CvWmhSFw0

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

@LizClaman Great conversation, building in America 🇺🇸, the incredible future of drug discovery 💊 and our next generation weight loss therapy ⚛️!

[Liz Claman @LizClaman]

If you missed my exclusive interview with @elilillyandCo CEO Dave Ricks on Claman’s @powerplayersFBN it re-airs tomorrow 9aET— he outlines how $LLY ‘s next-gen GLP1 Retatrutide could blast away obesity & the competition. Watch and get an edge!

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Building more! New $5B API site in Virginia to make our next generation of cancer medicines. This site will make Monoclonal Antibodies and ADCs and is our first effort to have the entire process, from starting material to finished product, on one site. Thanks to Governor @SpanbergerForVA and Ambassador @jamiesongreer for your help to get us here and for joining our celebration today!

[Eli Lilly and Company @EliLillyandCo]

Today we broke ground at our second U.S. facility in two months as part of our ongoing investment in domestic manufacturing. We’re building the future home of next-gen cancer medicines in Goochland, VA, and bringing 650 high-wage jobs to the area.

Read more https://t.co/I4WUCKKT7D

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Not good.

[Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson]

Your peptides may be coming fentanyl suppliers.

Anhui Renchen Technology was indicted in 2023 for supplying the Sinaloa Cartel with fentanyl precursors.

Their website currently sells semaglutide and melanotan II.

Of roughly 200 Chinese firms TRM Labs tracked selling fentanyl precursors, at least 50 now sell peptides.

The shipments enter the US in “master cartons” mislabelled as snack food, broken up by a domestic handler and mailed on. CBP has intercepted around 400 of those operations and seized over 130,000 vials in the past year.

FDA records surfaced showing two deaths, one in July and one in September, reported after people injected untested black market retatrutide.

[NEJM @NEJM]

Presented at #SleepEurope2026:

In two phase 3 trials involving participants with OSA and obesity or overweight with or without type 2 diabetes, treatment with retatrutide was found to result in greater decreases in the apnea–hypopnea index than placebo. Full results of the TRIUMPH-1-OSA and TRIUMPH-2-OSA trials: https://t.co/C7KEyEsdbz

@ESRS_Sleep

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Well said Vas. AI will help us conquer disease, but this will take time, effort and lots and lots of data that doesn’t exist, yet. I would add that robotic labs will begin to make scaling data more tractable. https://t.co/J19dfCO2Yi

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

One month (or so) on @X , a platform unlike any other. Energy, speed, smarts and stupidity.
-The best thing in BioX - Rapid and divergent takes on new clinical data, on balance usually right..wisdom of crowds
-The worst thing on BioX - Shameless replies and reposts pumping your own book, praying for M&A about your favorite name, plane stalking…do people actually think this is how a real drug company or serious investor makes decisions? Maybe it just makes you feel like you have some agency, then ok.

[Dave A Ricks @DaveARicks]

Two souls are dead because they self administered something purporting to be the most powerful metabolic agent ever developed - without medical supervision, before the inventor has asked for approval and sourced from a Chinese “lab” seeking to make a quick buck.

Peptide World - “Lilly made this up”.

[Michael Albert, MD @MichaelAlbertMD]

Two deaths were reported to the FDA from research-grade retatrutide (illegal for human use). https://t.co/PmIhAU3bPK