Eli Lilly CEO Ricks echoes a growing refrain on price negotiations: 'We’ll focus our resources on other areas'

Eli Lilly had some dreary Q2 numbers to report Thursday. And they kept analysts and investors on hold for an hour before attempting an explanation, blaming the delay on outside tech issues.

The late Q2 call didn’t help make the top and bottom line look any better. Sales dropped to $6.49 billion for the quarter, a bad miss from the $6.85 billion consensus. According to Lilly, that was due to both lower prices for some products — insulin was the standout — as well as a foreign exchange hit as a strong dollar bites and a drop of 13% on Covid-19 revenue.