Eli Lilly predicts costs will hit profit

ELI Lilly has forecast profit gains next year below its expected 2006 growth of 8% to 12%, held back by higher costs.

Indianapolis-based Lilly, which announced plans this week to create 200 jobs in Cork in a €400 million biopharmaceutical plant, gave the forecasts at a meeting in New York with Wall Street analysts to describe its pipeline of experimental products.

Lilly, which makes schizophrenia treatment Zyprexa and anti-impotence drug Cialis, said it is counting on steady introduction of new drugs to keep earnings growing.