On the Call: Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter

By The Associated Press

Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. avoids large-scale mergers and acquisitions while competitors like Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker, grow bigger that way.

Lilly executives tout their own pipeline of drugs under development as the key to replacing revenue they will lose when patents protecting several drugs expire in the next few years. The Indianapolis company said it has nearly 70 potential drugs in some stage of clinical development.

A total of eight have reached late-stage testing, the last step before regulatory approval.

Lilly also has completed several relatively small deals, like an agreement with Japanese drugmaker Kowa Co. Ltd. to copromote the cholesterol drug Livalo in the U.S.

An analyst asked CEO John Lechleiter during a Thursday conference call about this approach.

QUESTION: Can you just discuss how some of the business development efforts you've had help minimize the assumption that you want to become bigger?

RESPONSE: We think that the key to growth for Lilly and for this industry is innovation, and we're focused on reinventing our innovation engine here. We think we're making good progress and moving the most exciting pipeline along that we've ever had in our history.

I think, as you can see from the deals we've done, we will move aggressively to augment and supplement that pipeline.