With the recent launches of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill and Eli Lilly’s Foundayo, the obesity market has started to shift toward oral GLP-1 drugs. While Novo leverages its first-mover advantage with the familiar Wegovy brand, Lilly is betting the freedom from the strict fasting and water requirements can give Foundayo an edge.
Each week, Fierce Pharma’s Oral GLP-1 Tracker will leverage analysts’ notes and IQVIA data to monitor prescription trends and shifting market shares as these two titans vie to become the go-to oral weight-loss solution for millions.
UPDATED: May 4, 2026
With three weeks of data on Lilly’s oral GLP-1 launch in obesity now on the books, the dimensions of Foundayo’s rollout—and its critical comparison to that of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill—are coming into focus.
In its third week on the U.S. market, which ended April 24, Foundayo generated some 5,600 prescriptions, analysts at Jefferies wrote in a May 1 note to clients. That level of adoption is numerically lower than the stats recorded by the Wegovy pill in its third week, when prescriptions for the oral obesity med came in at around 26,100, per the note.
Nevertheless, almost all of Foundayo’s recorded performance stems from cash pay channels, according to the Jefferies team, with commercial access via insurance set to come online by the middle of this month, which will likely give Foundayo a substantial boost in uptake.
The team acknowledged that Foundayo’s reimbursement “appears to be ramping more slowly vs oral Wegovy’s.”
Overall, the analysts described Foundayo as “off to a solid start,” and estimate the drug will generate $146 million in the second quarter and $1.6 billion for all of 2026. That compares to consensus forecasts of $134 million and $1.2 billion, respectively.
Lilly told the Jefferies team that, as of week three of its launch, some 45% of Foundayo prescriptions were coming through its direct-to-patient channel LillyDirect, alongside 35% of referrals from telehealth providers and the remaining 20% coming from traditional retail venues.
During an earnings call with analysts last week, Lilly executives noted that there were around 20,000 patients on Foundayo in the U.S. The drug was approved April 1.
As for Novo’s pill, oral Wegovy lassoed around 135,000 total prescriptions during the week that ended April 24, according to the Jefferies notes.
UPDATE: April 24, 2026
Eli Lilly’s oral GLP-1 obesity treatment Foundayo has attracted 3,707 prescriptions though its second week on the market, lagging far behind the pace of Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 pill Wegovy, which drew 18,410 prescriptions though its second week on the market in January.
The results were made available by Jefferies from healthcare analytics firm IQVIA and are good through the week ending on April 17.
With the result, Lilly’s shares dipped by 4% on Friday, compared to a 7% gain for Novo.
Foundayo’s launch so far does compare favorably to that of Novo’s injected Wegovy, which numbered 1,578 prescriptions through two weeks when it reached the market in the U.S. but falls short of Lilly’s Zepbound pen, which counted 7,292 prescriptions through its second week.
In its note to investors, analysts from Jefferies called the result “disappointing vs. expectations."
Brand recognition has played a role, according to Bernstein analyst Courtney Breen, who said that online searches for GLP-1 drugs peaked during Wegovy’s launch, potentially boosting demand.
UPDATE: April 21, 2026
Eli Lilly’s oral GLP-1 Foundayo is off to a solid launch, drawing 1,390 prescriptions in its first week on the market, according to tracking figures from IQVIA and presented by Jefferies. The tabulation is from the week starting April 6. This compares to the 3,071 prescriptions Novo Nordisk garnered during its Wegovy pill launch week in January.
While Foundayo came up short in this oral GLP-1 launch week comparison, it did exceed the number of prescriptions recorded in the first week of the launch of both Lilly’s injected Zepbound (1,100) and Novo’s injected version of Wegovy (768).
In a note to clients, analysts with Jefferies cautioned that comparisons can be “tricky” given that oral Wegovy was launched at the start of the year and that initial capture rates from IQVIA are “volatile” and may not include product sampling.
“Overall, we think Foundayo’s initial scripts look excellent,” the Jefferies team wrote, adding that it is modeling Foundayo’s sales to reach $1.6 billion this year, compared to a consensus of $1.5 billion, with its peak annual sales topping out at $30 billion versus the consensus of $26 billion.
“We think the real opportunity for Foundayo is ex-U.S., given its clear advantages on scale, distribution and [cost of goods sold],” Jefferies wrote.