By Sriparna Roy
April 17 (Reuters) – Eli Lilly’s newly launched weight-loss pill was prescribed 1,390 times in the U.S. in its first week of sales, according to analysts who cited IQVIA data, indicating that its push into oral obesity treatments is gaining early traction.
Investors are closely watching the rollout as competition intensifies between Lilly and its Danish rival Novo Nordisk for a larger share of the obesity drug market, which is currently dominated by blockbuster injections.
“We think Foundayo’s initial scripts look excellent,” said Jefferies analyst Akash Tewari.
Analysts said IQVIA’s data for the week ended April 10 is likely based on two days of capture, assuming Foundayo was widely shipped a day earlier.
In comparison, Novo’s Wegovy pill had hit 3,071 U.S. prescriptions in the first four days after its launch on January 5.
Foundayo was approved in the U.S. on April 1, with prescriptions accepted immediately on LillyDirect, while shipping started on April 6. Broad availability through U.S. retail pharmacies and telehealth providers started on April 9.
In an emailed response to Reuters on Wednesday, Lilly had cautioned that the early weekly figures would not be fully comprehensive and may not capture the full breadth of pharmacy partners and would be “best interpreted over time rather than as a complete count”.
“We believe weeks 8-12 represent the earliest window to assess Foundayo’s true commercial momentum,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Trung Huynh.
Shares of Eli Lilly rose more than 2% on Friday.
Lilly CEO David Ricks said on Friday the pills offer greater convenience, including for those who want to “graduate” from injectables after reaching their weight-loss goals.
“We can now provide a single-acting GLP-1, not as good as Zepbound or Mounjaro, but can meet the needs of a lot of people,” he said at the Semafor World Economy conference.
STRONG UPTAKE OF ORAL WEGOVY
Wall Street analysts have said oral Wegovy’s launch seems stronger than that of Novo’s injectable Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound, with the caveat that the market for the injections has matured significantly since those drugs first rolled out.
The pill was prescribed 113,354 times in the same week, compared with 105,366 prescriptions in the prior week, according to IQVIA data. The analytics firm declined to comment.
“The oral Wegovy launch is off to a solid start,” J.P. Morgan analyst Chris Schott said. It appears the market is expanding, instead of impacting Lilly’s Zepbound injections, which currently lead sales among weight-loss drugs, he added.
The findings also offer insight into the performance of oral drugs as drugmakers shift towards cash-pay consumer models.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru and Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Leroy Leo)
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