Could AI Hold the Solution to Cancer? The Surge in Pharma Stocks Explained
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Source: Benzinga
Updated: Nov 17 20250mins
AI Transforming Healthcare: Eli Lilly & Co is leading a significant shift in the pharmaceutical industry through AI advancements, including a partnership with Insilico Medicine to design drugs and a collaboration with Nvidia to create a powerful AI supercomputer, potentially reducing drug development timelines from a decade to just a few years.
Cost Reduction and Profitability: The integration of AI in drug discovery could lower development costs by up to 90%, leading to higher profit margins and more pricing flexibility, which aligns with political pressures to reduce drug prices.
Focus on Oncology: AI-driven pharmaceutical companies are targeting oncology and immunology, with the potential to transform cancer into a manageable chronic disease by simulating drug interactions before clinical trials, thus increasing the chances of success.
Market Implications: The advancements in AI could lead to a re-evaluation of traditional pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly, Novartis, and Merck, positioning them at the forefront of innovation and disruption in the healthcare sector, similar to the impact of semiconductors on the digital economy.
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Analyst Views on LLY
Wall Street analysts forecast LLY stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for LLY is 1035 USD with a low forecast of 800.00 USD and a high forecast of 1300 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
20 Analyst Rating
18 Buy
2 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 1014.490
Low
800.00
Averages
1035
High
1300
Current: 1014.490
Low
800.00
Averages
1035
High
1300
BMO Capital
Outperform
maintain
2025-12-04
New
Reason
BMO Capital
Price Target
2025-12-04
New
maintain
Outperform
Reason
BMO Capital raised the firm's price target on Eli Lilly to $1,200 from $1,100 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. Following a string of positive readouts from Lilly's obesity pipeline Orforglipron and Eloralintide, the firm is assessing the potential scenarios for the upcoming TRIUMPH-4 readout for Retatrutide, the analyst tells investors in a research note, adding that BMO is anticipating 20%-23% weight loss and 50% or more in WOMAC pain score reduction as the base case. The firm adds that it believes diabetes will lead to durable and sustained growth for Eli Lilly as its pipeline strategy is beginning to bear fruit.
Guggenheim
Buy
maintain
2025-12-03
New
Reason
Guggenheim
Price Target
2025-12-03
New
maintain
Buy
Reason
Guggenheim raised the firm's price target on Eli Lilly (LLY) to $1,163 from $1,036 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares after updating the firm's Lilly and Novo Nordisk (NVO) models to reflect prescription trends and GLP-1 pricing updates and announcements. While noting that Lilly has "delivered another impressive year of stock performance in 2025," the firm "simply cannot argue with the company's superior overall execution capitalizing fully on the Pharma mega cycle of our lifetime," the analyst tells investors.
Morgan Stanley
NULL
to
Overweight
maintain
2025-11-24
Reason
Morgan Stanley
Price Target
2025-11-24
maintain
NULL
to
Overweight
Reason
Morgan Stanley raised the firm's price target on Eli Lilly to $1,290 from $1,171 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm refreshed its model assumptions to incorporate recent developments in the GLP-1 space as well as insights from a proprietary primary care physician survey, the analyst tells investors.
Bernstein
Outperform
maintain
2025-11-24
Reason
Bernstein
Price Target
2025-11-24
maintain
Outperform
Reason
Bernstein raised the firm's price target on Eli Lilly to $1,300 from $1,100 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm cites a catalyst path and earnings upside over the next 24 months-plus driven by Orforglipron launch, Trump GLP1 deal and ex-U.S. expansion.
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About LLY
Eli Lilly and Company is a medicine company, which discovers, develops, manufactures and markets products in the human pharmaceutical products segment. Its cardiometabolic health products include Basaglar; Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, and others; Humulin, Humulin 70/30, and others; Jardiance; Mounjaro; Trulicity; Zepbound; VERVE-102; VERVE-201, and VERVE-301. Its oncology products include Cyramza, Erbitux, Tyvyt, and Verzenio. Its immunology products include Ebglyss, Olumiant, Omvoh, and Taltz. Its neuroscience products include Emgality and Kisunla. The Company, through its subsidiary, POINT Biopharma Global Inc., is engaged in radiopharmaceutical discovery, development, and manufacturing efforts, as well as clinical and pre-clinical radioligand therapies in development for the treatment of cancer. It is also developing an oral small molecule inhibitor of a4b7 integrin for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
About the author
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Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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