Dave Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, on GLP-1s and the business of pharma
Cheeky Pint11 Nov 2025

Dave Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, on GLP-1s and the business of pharma

Dave Ricks, the CEO of Eli Lilly, the world's most valuable pharmaceutical company, sits down with John and Patrick to discuss the complex business of drug development. Dave explains the true origin story of GLP-1s (from Gila monster saliva), why their potential goes far beyond weight loss to addiction and inflammation, and how "self-pay" has become the #1 way new patients get Zepbound. They cover the "shadow generic" industry undermining patents, the challenges associated with clinical trial enrollment, and what drove insulin list prices to $275 (while the net price was $40). This is a rare, candid look into the strategies, science, and future of pharma from one of the industry's most influential leaders.

Timestamps

(00:00) Introducing Dave Ricks

(05:07) Making R&D decisions

(10:10) Clinical trials

(24:59) Drug pricing

(32:43) Stimulating more R&D

(54:15) Pros and cons of US healthcare

(58:20) New pharma business models

(01:05:53) Stripe and enterprises

(01:07:00) China

(01:16:31) Generics

(01:22:37) GLP-1s

(1:37:43) r/Peptides

(01:41:25) LillyDirect

(01:46:35) Why do investors love LLY?

Episoder(35)

What comes after smartphones, with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel

What comes after smartphones, with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel joins John at the pub for a deep dive into Snap's "crucible moment" of 2026: the long-awaited consumer launch of Spectacles. Evan explains why he believes the smartphone has beco...

27 Apr 1h 2min

The economics and trends of the restaurant industry, with Tony Xu of DoorDash

The economics and trends of the restaurant industry, with Tony Xu of DoorDash

Tony Xu, cofounder and CEO of DoorDash, joins John for a pint to discuss how they won a crowded market by obsessing over retention and the reality of fighting fraud in the physical world. They cover t...

21 Apr 1h 20min

The world of voice AI, with Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs

The world of voice AI, with Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs

Mati Staniszewski is the co-founder of ElevenLabs, the research company making audio accessible across languages and voices. He sits down with John to discuss the "voice Turing Test" and why AI has co...

14 Apr 1h

The history and future of AI at Google, with Sundar Pichai

The history and future of AI at Google, with Sundar Pichai

Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google and Alphabet. He sits down with John and Elad Gil to discuss Google’s resurgence in the AI race, managing a massive $180 billion CapEx budget, and why 2026 is the ye...

7 Apr 1h 9min

Compliance at scale and why TAM is a distraction with Christina Cacioppo of Vanta

Compliance at scale and why TAM is a distraction with Christina Cacioppo of Vanta

Christina Cacioppo, founder and CEO of Vanta, joins the pub to discuss building the future of agentic trust. She explains why compliance has a “vitamin vs painkiller” dynamic, the drama behind their f...

31 Mar 57min

The 20-year journey to fully autonomous cars with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo

The 20-year journey to fully autonomous cars with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo

Waymo is now doing nearly 500,000 rides a week across 10 cities. Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov came to the pub to discuss how they moved from scientific research to massive global scaling. He gives a mastercla...

24 Mar 1h 2min

Creating prediction markets (and suing the CFTC) with Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara

Creating prediction markets (and suing the CFTC) with Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara

Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara are the co-founders of Kalshi, the first federally regulated prediction market in the US. They sit down with John and Matt Huang to discuss growing their revenue 11x...

17 Mar 1h 16min

Bret Taylor of Sierra on AI agents, outcome-based pricing, and the OpenAI board

Bret Taylor of Sierra on AI agents, outcome-based pricing, and the OpenAI board

Bret Taylor, co-founder of Sierra and Chair of the OpenAI board, joins John for a pint to discuss the rapid shift toward an agentic future. In this episode, Bret explains why outcome-based pricing is ...

10 Mar 1h 41min

Populært innen Business og økonomi

stopp-verden
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
dine-penger-pengeradet
e24-podden
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
rss-pa-konto
pengesnakk
pengepodden-2
utbytte
finansredaksjonen
morgenkaffen-med-finansavisen
liberal-halvtime
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
tid-er-penger-en-podcast-med-peter-warren
stormkast-med-valebrokk-stordalen
rss-sunn-okonomi
rss-skravla-gar
rss-markedspuls-2
lederpodden