Lilly beats forecast, helped by drugs soon to face generics

Eli Lilly and Co reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by cost cuts and strong sales growth of depression and impotence treatments that will soon lose patent protection, and the drugmaker raised its full-year profit forecast.

Lilly on Wednesday said it earned $1.21 billion, or $1.11 per share in the second quarter. That compared with $924 million, or 83 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, Lilly earned $1.16 per share. Analysts on average had forecast $1.00 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)