Drug company Eli Lilly's profit in the third quarter more than doubled

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

An Eli Lilly & Co. logo appears on the cap of a bottle of pills on this photograph arranged in a pharmacy in Princeton, Illinois.

Lilly announced Monday that Trulicity significantly reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke and death from heart-related causes in a wide range of patients with type 2 diabetes.

The results of this trial should strengthen, if not strengthen, the Indianapolis-based drug maker's position as a leader in diabetes treatments, analysts said.

"Trulicity has become our main drug in terms of sales and we are certainly pleased with the data released yesterday," said Lilly's chief financial officer, Josh Smiley, during an interview.

"It reinforces the importance of the class for the treatment of diabetes," he added.

Lilly has raised its adjusted earnings guidance for 2018 to between $ 5.55 and $ 5.60 per share from $ 5.40 to $ 5.50 per share.

Net income for the quarter ended September more than doubled to $ 1.15 billion. The results of the previous year included a write-down of more than $ 400 million.

Excluding non-recurring items, Lilly posted earnings per share of $ 1.39, which is higher than the average estimate of $ 1.35 by analysts, according to Refinitiv's IBES data.

Revenues grew about 7% to $ 6.06 billion, exceeding expectations of previous analysts, which were $ 6.05 billion.

Lilly shares rose 4.2% to $ 114.78 in pre-market trading.