LLY or ABBV: Which Drugmaker is Likely to Offer Better Upside in 2026?

Eli Lilly LLY and AbbVie ABBV are leading, well-established U.S. drugmakers with multiple blockbuster therapies, strong R&D pipelines, significant market capitalizations and extensive global reach. Both maintain a solid presence across key therapeutic areas such as immunology, oncology, and neuroscience. Additionally, AbbVie has diversified into aesthetics and eye care, while Lilly has built a dominant position in cardiometabolic health.

While AbbVie has seen tremendous success with its immunology drugs, Lilly’s GLP-1 drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, under its cardiometabolic health business, are the key to its success story.

Both stocks are generating strong revenues and profits, and look well-positioned for further growth. But which one is a better investment option today? Let’s take a closer look at their fundamentals, growth prospects and challenges to make an informed choice.

The Case for Lilly

Lilly has seen tremendous success with Mounjaro and Zepbound, with demand rising rapidly. These therapies account for more than 50% of the company’s total revenues.

In 2025, the drugs generated combined sales of $36.5 billion, comprising around 56% of the company’s total revenues. Robust growth trends in the U.S. incretin analogs market and positive uptake trends of Mounjaro and Zepbound in new international markets led to strong sales growth in 2025, with the positive trend expected to continue in 2026.

In addition to Mounjaro and Zepbound, Lilly has secured approvals for several other new therapies over the past few years. These include Omvoh, Jaypirca, Ebglyss and Kisunla. These newly approved drugs are also contributing to Lilly’s revenue growth. Lilly expects its new drugs, Mounjaro, Zepbound, Ebglyss, Jaypirca, Inluriyo, Kisunla and Omvoh to drive sales growth in 2026.

The company is investing broadly in obesity and has several new molecules currently in clinical development with a range of oral and injectable medications with different mechanisms of action. A key drug in its obesity pipeline is the once-daily oral GLP-1 small molecule called orforglipron.

Lilly has filed regulatory applications in the United States, the EU and several other countries seeking approval for orforglipron in obesity. The company expects to launch orforglipron for obesity in the United States during the second quarter of 2026 and in most international markets during 2027. Lilly is also evaluating orforglipron in late-stage studies in other disease areas like obstructive sleep apnea, osteoarthritis pain of the knee, stress urinary incontinence and hypertension

Oral pills will be a more convenient alternative to the once-weekly injectable obesity treatments like Zepbound and rival Novo Nordisk’s NVO Wegovy. Novo Nordisk gained approval for an oral version of Wegovy in December 2025 and launched the pill in January 2026.

The Wegovy pill gives NVO the first-to-market advantage and will initially bring in additional revenues, which may hurt Lilly’s market share. However, we believe Lilly may be able to close the gap fast, once its own oral obesity pill, orforglipron, is approved by the FDA in 2026.

The company is also evaluating another key candidate, triple-acting incretin, retatrutide (which combines GLP-1, GIP and glucagon), in type II diabetes and obesity, along with other indications like obstructive sleep apnea, knee osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain, in late-stage studies.

In the past couple of years, Lilly upped its efforts to diversify beyond GLP-1 drugs by expanding into cardiovascular, oncology and neuroscience areas. In 2025, it announced several M&A deals.

Lilly has its share of problems. Prices of most of Lilly’s products are declining in the United States. Price is expected to continue to be a drag on top-line growth in the low to mid-teens percentage in 2026. Rising competition in the GLP-1 diabetes/obesity market is a key headwind. Also, sales of late-life cycle products like Trulicity, Taltz and Verzenio are expected to be flat or down in 2026.

The Case for AbbVie

AbbVie has successfully navigated the loss of exclusivity (LOE) of its blockbuster drug, Humira, which once generated more than 50% of its total revenues. It has accomplished this by launching two other successful new immunology medicines, Skyrizi and Rinvoq, which are performing extremely well, bolstered by approvals in new indications, and should support top-line growth in the next few years.

Skyrizi and Rinvoq generated combined sales of $26.0 billion in 2025, exceeding expectations and representing year-over-year growth of more than 40%. In 2026, AbbVie expects combined Skyrizi and Rinvoq sales of more than $31 billion, which is $0.5 billion more than its 2027 long-term guidance of $31 billion.

AbbVie’s neuroscience portfolio is also contributing to top-line growth. Sales of its neuroscience drugs increased almost 20% to $10.8 billion in 2025, driven by higher sales of Botox Therapeutic, depression drug Vraylar and newer migraine drugs Ubrelvy and Qulipta.

Its oncology segment generated combined revenues of $6.6 billion in 2025, up 1.5% year over year as higher sales of Venclexta and contributions from new drugs, Elahere and Epkinly, partially offset the decline in Imbruvica sales.

AbbVie has been on an acquisition spree in the past couple of years to bolster the early-stage pipeline that should drive long-term growth. Particularly, it is signing several M&A deals in the immunology space, its core area, and also inking some early-stage deals in oncology and neuroscience areas. In 2025, AbbVie invested more than $5 billion to acquire innovative pipeline candidates.

However, the company faces some near-term headwinds like Humira’s biosimilar erosion, a slight slowdown in oncology sales and declining sales of its Aesthetics unit due to continued macro challenges and weakened consumer sentiment. Global sales of the aesthetics portfolio declined 5.9% in 2025.

How Do Estimates Compare for LLY & ABBV?

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LLY’s 2026 sales and EPS implies a year-over-year increase of 25.7% and 41.1%, respectively. EPS estimates for 2026 and 2027 have risen over the past 60 days.

LLY Estimate Movement

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AbbVie’s 2026 sales and EPS implies a year-over-year increase of 9.6% and 45.6%, respectively. The EPS estimate for 2026 has risen from $14.37 to $14.54 over the past 60 days, while that for 2027 has declined from $16.28 to $16.24 over the same timeframe.

ABBV Estimate Movement

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Price Performance and Valuation of LLY & ABBV

In the past year, LLY’s stock has risen 9.2% and AbbVie’s stock has risen 2.0%. The industry has risen 9.4% in the said time frame.

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AbbVie looks more attractive than Lilly from a valuation standpoint. Going by the price/earnings ratio, Lilly’s shares currently trade at 25.12 forward earnings, significantly higher than 16.75 for the industry. However, LLY currently trades lower than its 5-year mean of 34.56. AbbVie’s shares currently trade at 13.75 forward earnings, lower than the industry. ABBV shares also trade below the stock’s 5-year mean of 13.78.

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AbbVie’s dividend yield is 2.3%, while Lilly’s is around 0.8%.

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LLY or ABBV: Which is a Better Pick?

AbbVie and Lilly have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) each, which makes choosing one stock a difficult task. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

AbbVie has faced its biggest challenge — Humira’s patent cliff — quite well and looks well-positioned for continued strong growth in the years ahead. ABBV delivered robust net sales growth in 2025, which is just the second full year following the Humira LOE in the United States. AbbVie expects another year of robust growth in 2026. It expects total revenues to rise approximately 9.5% in 2026.

It expects high single-digit revenue growth through 2029, as the company has no significant LOE events for the rest of this decade. A substantial portion of this growth is expected to be driven by the robust performance of Skyrizi and Rinvoq. With no significant LOEs expected this decade, AbbVie has the flexibility to invest more in R&D and continue acquiring external innovations.

However, exceptional growth from Mounjaro and Zepbound has made Lilly the largest drugmaker. It delivered robust financial performance in 2025 with revenues surging 45% and EPS growing 86%. Expectations for continued growth in 2026 remain high with projected revenues of $80-$83 billion and EPS of $33.50-$35.00.

Despite its expensive valuation, Lilly is a great stock to have in one’s portfolio, given its significant price appreciation, its product and pipeline portfolio in high-growth therapeutic areas like obesity, robust growth prospects and bullish analyst sentiment. Overall, we believe Lilly is a better pick for growth-oriented investors with more upside expectations than AbbVie.

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