Foundayo passes 40,000 weekly US prescriptions 20 weeks into launch
Foundayo crossed 40,000 weekly US prescriptions 20 weeks after launch, a slower climb than the Wegovy pill's, with coverage timing and uncounted telehealth fills shaping the figures.
Eli Lilly's Foundayo (orforglipron) topped 40,000 weekly US prescriptions for the first time, reaching 40,862 in the week reported Aug. 28, twenty weeks into its launch, according to IQVIA data cited by Citi [1]. The total reversed a small dip the week before [1].
For comparison, Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill, the oral form of semaglutide, had reached roughly 57,000 weekly prescriptions by week 6 of its own launch [1]. In its 33rd week, the Wegovy pill recorded about 175,000 scripts, slightly below the 176,000 of the prior week [1]. The oral version accounted for 35% of all Wegovy obesity prescriptions, flat week over week, and total Wegovy prescriptions across the pill and the injectable were a little over 500,000, down 0.8% [1].
Foundayo's climb has been uneven. Weekly prescriptions sat near 20,000 for about a month through late June [1]. Lilly's second-quarter results, reported Aug. 5, showed $98 million in Foundayo sales worldwide, including $67 million in the US, a figure that disappointed many analysts [1]. Lilly CEO David Ricks said on the earnings call that the company had begun broad direct-to-consumer marketing after securing commercial access across the three major pharmacy benefit managers in June [1]. Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA, said the company was "starting to see an inflection point on Foundayo now" [1].
Coverage timing is one difference between the two launches. CVS, the last of the big three pharmacy benefit managers to cover Foundayo, began June 1, while the Wegovy pill had full coverage in its first week on the market, Jefferies noted [1]. The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program, which started July 1, covers certain weight-loss medicines including Foundayo for a $50 monthly copayment [1]. Jefferies analysts wrote in an Aug. 21 note that Wegovy's prescription trends had been relatively flat since that program began [1].
The counts carry a known gap. Citi has said IQVIA may be missing some Foundayo prescriptions filled through telehealth channels, and analysts said it was not clear how much of one week's 16% increase came from better data capture versus faster real growth [1]. Among new prescriptions, which exclude refills, Foundayo held 21.5% of the oral obesity market as of the Aug. 28 Jefferies note [1].
In the weeks after the 40,000 mark, Foundayo rose to about 44,000 scripts and then 47,500, up nearly 8%, while the Wegovy pill reached about 183,000, according to IQVIA data cited by Citi [1]. Citi said IQVIA may still be missing some Foundayo telehealth prescriptions [1]. The analysts also said total GLP-1 prescriptions rose 5.4% over the prior four weeks, compared with a 6.8% decline a year earlier, a 12-percentage-point swing they attributed to oral GLP-1s drawing in new patients [1]. Lilly's tirzepatide held nearly 57% of the total GLP-1 market, against about 49.5% a year earlier, while Novo's semaglutide stayed near 37% [1]. The obesity market split remained roughly 60-40 between Lilly and Novo, with Zepbound the most prescribed product [1].
Why it matters for patients
US patients now have two oral GLP-1 options to track: Foundayo (orforglipron) and the Wegovy pill (oral semaglutide) [1]. Their launch paths differ. The Wegovy pill reached high prescription volumes quickly with full insurance coverage from the start, while Foundayo's access through the largest pharmacy benefit managers arrived in stages this spring, and its Medicare Bridge coverage began July 1 [1]. How quickly a drug's prescriptions grow is therefore not simply a measure of patient demand; coverage decisions and marketing start dates are part of the picture [1].
The published weekly figures include refills and come from a data set that Citi says misses some telehealth fills for Foundayo [1]. How large that gap is has not been reported, so the numbers may understate actual use of the drug [1]. Citi's read on the broader market is that oral GLP-1s are expanding the class and bringing in patients who were not previously taking these medicines [1].
What happens next
Prescription totals for both oral drugs are reported weekly, and the trackers cited by Citi and Jefferies have continued to update [1]. No next dated milestone for Foundayo has been reported. The key unanswered question in the available data is how many Foundayo prescriptions from telehealth channels IQVIA still does not capture, and how that affects the comparison with the Wegovy pill [1].
Sources
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