NEW YORK, Feb 20, 2026, 11:02 AM EST — Regular session
Eli Lilly and Co shares fell 1.6% to $1,006.78 in late-morning trading on Friday, lagging a 0.6% rise in the S&P 500 ETF and a 0.7% dip in the health-care sector ETF. Novo Nordisk’s U.S.-listed shares were down about 1.9%.
Barclays kicked off coverage with an Overweight rating and a $1,350 price target, arguing the market for GLP-1 weight-loss treatments has become a “durable structural shift.” (Overweight is a call that the stock should outperform.) (TipRanks)
The note lands at a touchy moment for big obesity-drug winners. Lilly has become a high-expectations stock, and traders have been quick to fade anything that hints at tougher pricing or slower growth, even when the long-term thesis stays intact.
That push and pull is showing up outside Lilly’s own headlines. A Reuters report on Hims & Hers’ aborted plan to sell a compounded oral semaglutide pill highlighted a tougher regulatory stance on copycat GLP-1s as branded makers expand supply and cut prices; BMO analyst Evan Seigerman said compounded volumes “will likely decline further” as scrutiny rises. (Reuters)
Lilly also put out fresh clinical data in immunology, another area it has leaned on to broaden its story beyond obesity. In a release tied to new Omvoh (mirikizumab) data in Crohn’s disease, Lilly said more than 90% of patients who achieved steroid-free remission at one year maintained that control through three years, and immunology chief Adrienne Brown said Omvoh “is redefining what durable disease control can look like.” (PR Newswire)
Deal chatter has followed the same theme. Australia’s CSL said it granted Lilly rights to develop and commercialize clazakizumab in additional areas in exchange for a $100 million upfront payment, with potential milestones and royalties; CSL kept exclusive rights for a cardiovascular-events indication in end-stage kidney disease. (Reuters)
A separate signal from the tape came via a regulatory filing. A Form 4 showed Brown, an executive vice president who runs Lilly’s immunology unit, received 391 shares from vested restricted stock units and disposed of about 170 shares at $1,040 in what appears to be a tax-related transaction. (SEC)
None of that changes what drives the stock day to day: investors keep coming back to Lilly’s grip on the obesity and diabetes market and how long demand can outrun manufacturing, reimbursement friction and rising competition. The rest of the pipeline matters more when the weight-loss trade gets crowded.
The risk, now, is that the pricing fight and the clampdown on gray-market versions move faster than patients (and insurers) move into branded drugs. That would put more pressure on growth assumptions that have been baked into heavyweight valuations across the GLP-1 space.
Traders’ next near-term checkpoint is the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation congress in Stockholm, which runs through Feb. 21, where more data and commentary can ripple into immunology names, including Lilly. (Ecco Ibd)
