Eli Lilly: Investing in the Human Mind

     Businessmen have long recognized that the root of wealth is the productive mind.  They have sought out schools to improve education in the hope that more talented and intelligent graduates would seek employment at their businesses.  But, what too few have recognized is that certain medical companies play just as important a role in fostering intellectual ability as better education.  Eli Lilly (LLY) is a business that fits this model.

The innovation-driving, pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly (LLY), is the leader in two areas of mental efficacy.  It invented and sells the greatest mental health medicine ever created--a drug called Zyprexa.  And, as of last year, in the race to develop the first preventative medical treatment for Alzheimer's disease, Lilly's drug, Solanezumab, was the only advanced-tested medicine that showed experimental promise--while those of two competitors fell by the wayside.

Zyprexa is so great a drug that even Lilly's own research laboratories have been having trouble beating it's mental health champion.  Last year, Eli Lilly (LLY) issued a press release announcing that it is ending clinical studies of pomaglumetad methionil--a medicine that would have been a competitor in Zyprexa's market.  However, the research and testing continues.  Jan Lundberg, Ph.D., executive vice president, science and technology, and president of Lilly Research Laboratories reported, "...neuroscience remains a core area of focus at Lilly.  Our clinical development pipeline includes nearly a dozen neuroscience molecules being studied to treat illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder and cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia."

As Eli Lilly (LLY) exploits the leads from its research and clinical observations in the fight against Alzheimer's disease, and, as the challenged, but determined, mental health researchers forge ahead to invent the human mind's better mouse-trap, shareholders may not only be investing in better products (as such), but the human mind, itself, and all the compounded economic effects that surge forth from that fountainhead of productivity and progress.

Paul Wharton
Objectivist Capitalist Medicine Promoter

Special thanks to Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) for being the fuel of my mind