Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks talks China, AI, and pharma’s next ‘golden era’ after obesity

NEW YORK — Eli Lil­ly CEO David Ricks shared his view from the phar­ma in­dus­try’s peak in an hour­long con­ver­sa­tion Tues­day with the Eco­nom­ic Club of New York.

Ricks weighed in on every­thing from Alzheimer’s and AI to Chi­na ten­sions and the fu­ture of di­rect-to-con­sumer drug sales. Of course, there was al­so no avoid­ing the key dri­ver of Lil­ly’s in­dus­try-lead­ing pole po­si­tion: its megablock­buster obe­si­ty drugs. Here’s how the CEO of the drug­mak­er now val­ued at $716 bil­lion — more than the bell­wethers John­son & John­son and Mer­ck com­bined — sees the state of the in­dus­try.

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