Eli Lilly reported on Aug. 5 that its new obesity pill, Foundayo, has experienced a slower uptake in the United States compared to rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, despite the company’s recent success in the obesity market.
After receiving approval from the Food and Drug Administration on April 1, Lilly has focused on introducing patients and caregivers to Foundayo, which is described as a completely new product. In contrast, Novo Nordisk introduced an oral version of its established injectable GLP-1 drug. Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA and global customer capabilities, said during the company’s second quarter earnings call, "We’re making pretty meaningful progress on the Foundayo performance and building out the brand." He added that volume for Foundayo has doubled from just a month ago and nearly one in four patients are choosing it for initial starts. "We’re starting to see an inflection point on Foundayo now," Yuffa said.
Foundayo generated $98 million in sales during its first quarter available (Q2), compared to $355 million for Wegovy’s pill during its initial period. By the second quarter following approval in December 2025, Wegovy reached $496 million in sales. Analysts were not surprised by Foundayo missing consensus estimates but noted strong performance outside of the U.S., particularly with $31 million reported from sales in the United Arab Emirates. Leerink Partners’ Senior Research Analyst David Risinger said this “bodes well for Foundayo’s global potential.” RBC Capital Markets questioned whether Lilly's overall results would have been as strong without these ex-U.S. sales but acknowledged growth in subscribers from about 8,000 at launch to 36,000 currently.
Despite lagging behind expectations for its new obesity pill domestically, Eli Lilly posted overall revenue of $23 billion for Q2—exceeding projections—and raised its outlook to between $85 billion and $87 billion for the year. The company executed several acquisitions during this period including Orna Therapeutics, Ajax Therapeutics, Centessa Pharmaceuticals and Kelonia Therapeutics; it also acquired psychedelics biotech AtaiBeckley.
During the earnings call, analysts asked about Lilly's renewed interest in psychiatry following these acquisitions as well as earlier deals related to vaccines. Jacob Van Naarden, president of Lilly Oncology and head of corporate business development, said: "What these two areas have in common is just the immense unmet need that still remains... It’s not actually that different... than many other deals we’ve done year to date." Van Naarden indicated more deals could be forthcoming but declined to provide specifics: "Whether we continue to build more around infectious diseases and psychiatry specifically … I don’t want to forward-look too much on that because we’ll be opportunistic based on what we see that’s available for acquisition and partnering."
