Eli Lilly’s Foundayo (orforglipron) has led to weight loss of 13% in post-hoc analysis of patients aged over 65 from two Phase III trials.
In data presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey, the ATTAIN-1 (NCT05869903) and ATTAIN-2 (NCT05872620) trials saw clinically significant body weight reductions in adults aged 65 and older with obesity or overweight, with or without type 2 diabetes.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
In ATTAIN-1, which enrolled patients with obesity or overweight and without type 2 diabetes, the highest dose (17.2mg) led to a mean body weight reduction of 13% in the observed data for adults 65 and older. Patients aged 65 years and older saw mean body weight reductions of 7.9% in the low-dose cohort (5.5mg) and 11.3% in the medium-dose group (9mg), compared to 1.6% with placebo.
In ATTAIN-2, which included patients with obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes, mean weight loss reduction of 12.2% was reached in the high-dose cohort. Weight loss was 7.5% and 8.3% in the low- and medium-dose cohorts, respectively. This was compared to 2.3% in the placebo group.
Dr Rachel Batterham, senior vice president of medical innovation and external engagement at Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, said: “Weight management in older adults requires careful consideration of both benefit and risk. These data are reassuring on both fronts – up to 13% weight loss was observed in patients 65 and older taking Foundayo, with a safety profile similar to what was observed in the broader trial populations. The fact that these results were achieved with a once-daily pill that patients can take at any time, without planning around meals or dealing with injections, matters in this age group.”
Foundayo is the only approved glucagon like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) pill that can be taken at any time of day without food or water restrictions. In July 2025, GlobalData’s consensus projected global sales of $14.36bn for orforglipron in 2031.
Novo Nordisk, the other major name in the weight loss ring, gained a first-to-market advantage after oral Wegovy (semaglutide) gained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in late December 2025, with a January 2026 launch. Lilly gained marketing authorisation on 1 April 2026.
In their respective Q1 financials, both Lilly and Novo Nordisk boasted positive launches of their medications. Novo said that for the week ending 17 April, total weekly prescriptions exceeded 200,000 for the drug. Total prescriptions for Q1 2026 hit 1.3 million, with that figure rising to more than two million since launch. Those numbers translate to DKr2.3bn ($360m) in quarterly revenue for oral Wegovy, further cementing the medicine’s robust early-market performance.
Meanwhile, Lilly’s launch came following the Q1 end, and the company confirmed that in its third week on the market, which ended 24 April, Foundayo was prescribed around 5,600 times.
Sales in the GLP-1RA pill market are expected to reach $34.3bn in 2031, according to GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center. GlobalData is the parent company of Clinical Trials Arena.
