13 May 2022: FDA approves Lilly's Mounjaro
On May 13, 2022 the FDA approved Eli Lilly's tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro, for type 2 diabetes. Trials had also shown remarkable weight loss, and the drug was later approved for obesity under the name Zepbound. Demand soon outstripped supply. Together with Novo Nordisk's rival drugs, it turned a once-sleepy corner of pharma into one of the hottest trades in markets and made Lilly the world's most valuable drugmaker.
The lesson: Sometimes the biggest opportunity is a side effect of the original plan.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Eli Lilly at the start of 2020 → $6,818 today, vs $2,092 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2020, the latest year on the wheel. That is 6.8 times the money, and $4,726 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Eli Lilly teaches: Starting point matters enormously: the same great company can deliver a lost decade or a fortune depending entirely on the price and year you first paid.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $69.00 | $13,043 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $85.00 | $10,588 | $2,519 |
| 2020 | $132 | $6,818 | $2,092 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Eli Lilly? Every starting year and the full story →
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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