Novo's Wegovy pill keeps roughly four-to-one lead over Lilly's Foundayo in weekly prescriptions
Two oral GLP-1 pills are now on the U.S. market, and the prescription gap between them reflects brand familiarity and different dosing routines as much as anything else.
As of the week reported Sept. 11, 2026, Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill recorded roughly 183,000 total U.S. prescriptions, while Eli Lilly's Foundayo recorded 47,500, according to IQVIA data cited by Citi. That puts the Wegovy pill's weekly volume at close to four times Foundayo's [2].
The Wegovy pill was up slightly from about 181,000 the week before. Foundayo climbed nearly 8% to a new high for that product [2]. Citi analysts cautioned that IQVIA data may still be missing some Foundayo prescriptions filled through telehealth channels [2].
Novo Nordisk has told investors its Wegovy pill "is the strongest US GLP-1 volume launch to-date" [1]. Novo launched the pill in early 2026, and Lilly followed with Foundayo [1]. Demand for the pill has run well ahead of what Novo saw for its injectable versions, and analysts have pointed to brand familiarity as one reason: the Wegovy pill carries a name prescribers already know, while Foundayo is a new brand for a new molecule that doctors cannot directly compare with Lilly's injectables Mounjaro and Zepbound [1]. Lilly is betting that Foundayo's freedom from strict fasting and water requirements can give it an edge [2].
The oral products are still a minority of each company's obesity business. The Wegovy pill accounts for about 35% of all Wegovy prescriptions, with the rest coming from the injectable [2]. Across all GLP-1 medicines for obesity and diabetes, Lilly's tirzepatide holds close to 57% share and Novo's semaglutide about 37% [2].
There are signs the oral drugs are expanding the overall market rather than only dividing it. Total GLP-1 prescriptions rose 5.4% over the most recent four weeks, compared with a 6.8% decline in the same stretch a year earlier — a 12-percentage-point swing that Citi attributed to oral therapies broadening access and drawing in new patients [2].
Foundayo's launch has been slower to build. It passed 40,000 weekly prescriptions for the first time about twenty weeks in [2]. Pharmacy coverage arrived in stages: CVS was the last of the three big pharmacy benefit managers to cover Foundayo, starting June 1, while the Wegovy pill had full coverage in its first week on the market [2]. Since July 1, the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program has covered certain weight-loss medicines, including Foundayo, for a $50 monthly copayment [2].
Why it matters for patients
Both oral options are on the market, and both are being prescribed in rising numbers, so the choice a patient and prescriber face is no longer about availability. The differences highlighted so far are routine and familiarity: the Wegovy pill is taken with fasting and water requirements, while Foundayo was designed without them [2], and one product name is already known to many prescribers while the other is new [1].
Prescription volume is not evidence that one drug works better than the other. The sources here do not compare the two products on weight loss, side effects or how long patients stay on them, so that comparison has not been reported.
Cost is also only partly visible. The Medicare Bridge program sets a $50 monthly copayment for certain weight-loss medicines, including Foundayo, for eligible Part D beneficiaries [2]. What patients pay outside that program, and how the two pills compare on out-of-pocket cost, has not been disclosed in these reports. Lilly's reported Foundayo sales for the second quarter were $98 million in total, including $67 million in the U.S. [2].
What happens next
Fierce Pharma updates its oral GLP-1 tracker weekly using IQVIA data cited by Citi, so the prescription gap will be measurable week to week [2]. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly last reported earnings on Aug. 5, 2026 [2]; dates for their next quarterly reports have not been disclosed here. Analysts at Jefferies have modeled about $71 million in U.S. Foundayo sales for one quarter, below Wall Street's $130 million consensus, while still expecting the product to reach a $1.2 billion revenue estimate for 2026 [2]. Whether Foundayo closes the prescription gap has not been established.
Sources
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