As Eli Lilly gets off to the races with the launch of its flagship oral GLP-1 Foundayo, the Indianapolis drugmaker—and at least one set of analysts—isn’t sweating what appears to be a slower-than-expected liftoff compared with Novo Nordisk’s rival Wegovy pill.
Following the April 1 approval of Foundayo (orforglipron)—which became widely available in the U.S. on April 9—there are now some 20,000 patients on the drug for obesity or overweight, Ilya Yuffa, EVP and president of Lilly USA, said on an analyst call Thursday.
“It’s early days, but we’re pretty pleased with the trajectory and encouraging first start to launch,” the executive said, noting that Lilly will now focus on driving uptake of its GLP-1 pill by drilling down on doctor and patient awareness and access, with the view that Foundayo’s “trajectory will build over time.”
As industry watchers have closely tracked the approval process and launch of both Foundayo and Novo’s Wegovy pill, the temptation has been heavy to pit the product rollouts against one another.
Earlier this month, Jefferies analysts cited IQVIA data showing that Foundayo rounded up 3,707 prescriptions through its second week on the market, seemingly paling in comparison to the 18,410 the Wegovy pill garnered over that same period in its launch.
At the same time, the Jefferies team has cautioned that comparing the launches is a “tricky” proposition, with the added caveat that initial capture rates from IQVIA are “volatile” and may fail to account for product sampling.
In a Thursday note to clients, analysts at Cantor called the update on Foundayo prescriptions “incrementally supportive,” adding that it has received indication Lilly is adding around 1,000 scripts per day.
As for the levers Lilly will pull to increase Foundayo’s momentum, Yuffa said the company is working to grow familiarity with the pill among HCPs. Foundayo now boasts around 8,000 U.S. prescribers, roughly a third of whom hadn’t before written an oral GLP-1 prescription, according to the executive.
Beyond those efforts to build doctor awareness, Lilly is pursuing access expansion and consumer familiarity, too, Yuffa said.
In particular, he pointed to Lilly’s plans for a “full-scale” direct-to-consumer and TV awareness push for the drug.
Digging deeper into launch dynamics, Lilly noted in an earnings presentation (PDF) that it’s now offering Foundayo over more than 12 “major telehealth platforms,” representing some 35% of Foundayo’s current launch volume.
The company added that it activated its in-person Foundayo sales force on April 17, with plans to kick off the broader promotional push that Yuffa alluded to in 2026’s third quarter.
Regarding access, Lilly says it has confirmed coverage at two of three major pharmacy benefit managers by mid-May, plus Medicare access through CMS’ GLP-1 Bridge program beginning July 1.
All told, Lilly grew sales in the first quarter a whopping 56% to reach $19.8 billion, coming in some 13% above consensus revenue estimates, according to a note from analysts at Leerink Partners. As with recent quarters, those gains were driven by substantial sales of Lilly’s injectable GIP/GLP-1 agonist tirzepatide, AKA Zepbound and Mounjaro, in obesity and diabetes.
In light of the solid start to the year, Lilly has also lifted its 2026 guidance by $2 billion on both ends and is now projecting full-year sales will range between $82 billion and $85 billion.
In contextualizing the sales, the Leerink team noted that much of the surge in Q1 was driven by adoption of Lilly’s GIP/GLP-1 drug Mounjaro outside the U.S., where revenues came in 35% above consensus, plus a U.S. upside for the med 13% above consensus.
In the U.S., Lilly sells its med tirzepatide under the separate brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound for Type 2 diabetes and obesity, respectively. Outside the U.S., both indications are primarily covered under the single Mounjaro moniker.
Lilly logged total Mounjaro sales of nearly $8.7 billion in the first quarter, representing a 125% leap year-over-year. Zepbound, for its part, grew 80% to bring home some $4.1 billion for the earnings period.
