Foundayo became available on April 9 and has already reached 20,000 patients as Eli Lilly builds its marketing machine for the weight loss pill.
Over 20,000 patients have received Eli Lilly’s oral weight loss pill Foundayo since its April 9 launch. While analysts didn’t get the exact sales figures they were looking for when the pharma giant reported earnings on Thursday, the early launch details seemed to satisfy the hungry hordes.
“Orals are expanding the market vs. cannibalizing injectable share,” BMO Capital Markets wrote Thursday morning.
Indeed, so far 80% of prescriptions have been to patients who have not taken one of this new class of weight loss medications before, Lilly said. And the company hasn’t even begun full scale consumer promotion yet—that is slated for the third quarter, according to the company’s first quarter earnings presentation.
Foundayo has already been added to more than 12 major telehealth platforms, which have accounted for about 35% of volume, Lilly said. About 45% of volume has come via Lilly’s direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA and global customer capabilities, said on Thursday’s call with investors.
Foundayo has collected 8,000 prescribers—a third of whom had never signed a prescription for an oral GLP-1 before, according to Yuffa.
“What we’re hearing is really positive on the overall efficacy and kind of the no hassle factor on a daily oral GLP-1,” he said.
To promote the therapy, Lilly has been working on direct-to-consumer promotion, digital and social media and more ahead of the full-court press planned for later this year. Yuffa said the goal is to improve physician familiarity before the full marketing machine turns on.
While Lilly is able to capitalize on the massive public interest in weight loss, Ricks said Foundayo is different than Zepbound (the weight loss brand name for tirzepatide, which is also marketed as Mounjaro for diabetes). For the Zepbound launch, Lilly was able to tap into familiar prescribers and recognition of the molecule itself.
Rival Novo Nordisk has done the same with its semaglutide franchise, which includes Ozempic for diabetes and the Wegovy injectable or pill for weight loss.
“The three major products that are used in obesity in the United States are all line extensions,” Ricks said. “So the molecule was on the market before, and in some cases, the brand name was used before.”
Ricks noted that in contrast, Foundayo is completely new to the market and physicians. “We’re starting from a much lower baseline. We’ve got to build that, but we’re hugely confident we’ll be able to build it.”
Lilly is also putting its firepower behind international launches at a scale rarely seen. Typically, the U.S. market is accessed first while other smaller markets follow slowly. With Foundayo, Ricks said the company is already working on 40 international regulatory applications.
“We expect that to happen also in one of the most accelerated cadences, perhaps in the history of the industry,” Ricks said.
Lilly will also file for FDA approval of Foundayo for diabetes later this quarter after the drug reduced cardiovascular and death risk in the Phase 3 ACHIEVE-4 trial. The company is testing Foundayo in six additional Phase 3 clinical trials in other diseases.
For earnings, Lilly recorded a massive beat over analyst consensus and raised guidance for the year. The company took home $19.8 billion for the first quarter, which was a 56% increase over the same period in 2025. Key products were, of course, Mounjaro and Zepbound, which contributed mightily to $13.4 billion in revenue for Lilly’s key products.
“After a weaker start to 2026, 1Q results firmly put concerns to bed, with strength across the business,” BMO wrote.
Lilly now expects revenue of $82 billion to $85 billion for the year instead of $80 billion to $83 billion. Earnings per share are expected to fall between $35.50 and $37 instead of $33.50 and $35.
