Intelligent Financial Information APP learned that the skyrocketing demand for weight loss and diabetes drugs has driven Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US) stock to historic highs. But Anat Ashkenazi, the departing CFO, said the pharmaceutical company still has a lot of work to do for this hard-won success.

Ashkenazi will become Alphabet's CFO on July 31. She played a key role in managing unexpected income and investor optimism from the Mounjaro diabetes injection and Zepbound weight loss drug at Eli Lilly. She became Eli Lilly's CFO in 2021 after working for the pharmaceutical giant for about 20 years.

Before announcing her departure, she said: "You have to really understand the business, inside and out, and the industry. Only when we understand the entire system can we manage it well and bring value to it...that's my responsibility as CFO."

Her tenure was not without its challenges: Eli Lilly and competitor Novo Nordisk (NVO.US) struggled to produce enough drugs to meet unprecedented demand, resulting in shortages of these drugs.

The weight loss and diabetes drugs of these two companies are GLP-1 agonists, which mimic certain hormones produced by the intestines to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar. Some analysts predict that by 2030, the market value of these drugs will reach $100 billion.

According to Ashkenazi, Eli Lilly's revenue surge has enabled the company to invest heavily in expanding production capacity and ultimately deliver more drugs to patients.

Ashkenazi said at a March meeting that Eli Lilly expects to be unable to keep up with demand this year or even until 2025. But so far, the pharmaceutical giant has made encouraging progress.

Ashkenazi said that Eli Lilly has several production bases under construction or "accelerated construction." These factories will expand the company's existing, very large manufacturing footprint in the United States and Europe. In May, Eli Lilly said it had spent more than $18 billion building, expanding, and acquiring manufacturing facilities in these regions since 2020.

Ashkenazi pointed out that Eli Lilly is also addressing another obstacle for patients to obtain weight-loss drugs: limited insurance coverage for such drugs in the United States.

Some employers and other health plans still do not want to reimburse the cost of GLP-1 weight loss drugs because they are expensive and say it could seriously affect their budgets. Insurance companies also have other issues, such as the actual time patients receive treatment.

However, Ashkenazi said that US commercial insurance coverage for Zepbound is expanding, and as of April 1, commercial insurance coverage is around 67%. She pointed out that Eli Lilly is working hard to provide this way for the rest of the patients.

"It's not enough to just have an efficient, safe drug that can truly change people's medical care. You also need to make it easy to obtain," Ashkenazi said.

She also hopes that patients who participate in the federal health insurance plan will eventually see an expanded coverage of weight loss drugs, as Eli Lilly and other drugmakers have shown that such drugs can treat a variety of obesity-related diseases.

Eli Lilly is studying the efficacy of tizepatide (the active ingredient in Zepbound and Mounjaro) for patients with obesity and fatty liver, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic kidney disease, and heart failure.

According to new guidelines released in March, US Medicare Part D plans can cover regulatory-approved obesity treatments as an extra health benefit. At present, Part D plans cannot independently cover weight loss drugs.

Ashkenazi believes that a bigger issue now is the long-standing misconception that obesity is a "lifestyle choice" rather than a chronic disease.

Eli Lilly is trying to change this.

"Our goal is to ensure that society, health care system, and patients truly understand this and understand that this is a chronic disease...and therefore should be treated," Ashkenazi said.