Eli Lilly launched its oral weight-loss pill Foundayo in the UK, the first European market for the treatment. Priced at £100 to £120 a month, it undercuts Lilly's Mounjaro injection at £330. The drug is available via private prescription pending NICE assessment for NHS access.
Eli Lilly launched its oral weight-loss pill Foundayo in the UK, the first European market for the treatment, priced at £100 to £120 a month.
The pill, chemically known as orforglipron, is available through private prescription after Britain's medicines regulator authorized the drug on August 10, making it the second GLP-1 tablet cleared in the UK after Novo Nordisk's Wegovy. "We have requested further information on Foundayo following its first committee meeting," a NICE spokesperson said, with no date set for a second review.
Foundayo is approved for patients with a body mass index of at least 30, or between 27 and 30 in the event of at least one weight-related health condition. The £100 to £120 monthly price undercuts Lilly's Mounjaro injection, which costs about £330 for a month's supply. Private providers in the UK price Novo's Wegovy pill from £74 to £129 a month for initial low doses, with most starting rates tied to multi-month subscription plans and costs rising as patients move to higher doses.
The launch expands Lilly's footprint in the weight-management market as competition with Novo intensifies across both injectable and oral formats. Foundayo remains under review in the European Union, while Novo's Wegovy pill has won a positive recommendation from the European Medicines Agency, with a final decision from the European Commission pending. Lilly shares rose 0.88 percent, while Novo gained 1.30 percent.
Lilly said it was working with England's health cost-effectiveness watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, on a potential roll-out at the state-run National Health Service. NICE must assess the pill before it can become available through the publicly funded system, and the agency reiterated that Novo had yet to make an evidence submission for the Wegovy pill.
The UK launch gives Lilly a second commercial product in the oral GLP-1 segment alongside Mounjaro, targeting patients who prefer a tablet over an injection. Investors will watch the European Commission's decision on Novo's Wegovy pill and Lilly's EU review of Foundayo as the two drugmakers compete for share of a weight-management market projected to grow into tens of billions of dollars in annual sales.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
