Oral GLP-1 Race Accelerates as Lilly's Foundayo Hits Record Prescriptions While Novo's Wegovy Pill Stalls

Prescription tracking data through week 24 reveals a stark divergence in the competitive landscape between Eli Lilly ($LLY) and Novo Nordisk ($NVO) in the emerging oral GLP-1 weight-loss sector, with spillover implications for telehealth platforms like Hims & Hers ($HIMS).
Key prescription dynamics and market trends include:
• Trajectory Comparison: Novo Nordisk's oral Wegovy reached 152k weekly total prescriptions (TRx) by week 24, whereas Lilly's Foundayo (orforglipron) achieved 64k weekly TRx over the same comparative timeframe.
• Momentum Shift & Plateauing: Oral Wegovy adoption has leveled off, sitting at roughly 182k total weekly prescriptions and remaining essentially flat over the trailing 1.5 months. Conversely, Foundayo printed a fresh all-time high in weekly volume, adding +11k new weekly TRx over the past week alone—its fastest expansion pace since launch.
• Market Share & Telehealth Exposure: Foundayo's non-peptide, small-molecule profile (which eliminates strict empty-stomach dosing constraints) is capturing rapid incremental market share. As commercial access broadens and branded oral options ramp up, digital health distributors ($HIMS) face both expanding customer volume opportunities and evolving margin dynamics across branded versus compounded GLP-1 offerings.