Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy pill has surpassed three million prescriptions in just over five months, cementing its place among the strongest U.S. pharmaceutical launches by volume on record.
The three million prescription milestone translates to roughly one prescription filled every five seconds, reflecting relentless consumer demand since the drug became available in January 2026.
Wegovy reached its first one million prescriptions just 12 weeks after hitting U.S. pharmacies and online providers, with the next two million accumulating in an even faster 10-week window.
More than 80% of new Wegovy pill prescriptions are going to patients who have never previously used a GLP-1 therapy, suggesting the oral format is actively expanding the obesity treatment market rather than simply converting existing users.
This year, more patients starting a new weight management therapy have filled prescriptions for Wegovy than for any other available obesity medication, reinforcing its commanding market position.
Eli Lilly’s competing oral obesity pill, Foundayo, is tracking well below Wegovy’s pace at the same stage of its own launch, according to data reviewed by analysts at Jefferies and Citi.
The Jefferies team put seventh-week total Foundayo prescriptions at roughly 11,700, a figure that remains “numerically lower” than the course charted by Novo’s Wegovy pill, which recorded 67,000 prescriptions in its seventh week.
Analysts at Jefferies and Citi flagged caveats that could be skewing the comparative numbers, though the Jefferies team expressed confidence that Lilly’s oral GLP-1 can still meet consensus sales projections for both the second quarter and full-year 2026.
Wegovy recorded around 146,000 total prescriptions in the week ending May 22, its twentieth week on the market, representing week-on-week growth of 2%, though that pace marks a deceleration from earlier in the launch.
Based on IQVIA data, the Wegovy pill is running at approximately 2.4 times the prescription volume that Lilly’s injectable Zepbound achieved at the same stage of its own launch, though figures do not fully capture the direct-to-patient cash-pay channel.
First-quarter sales of the Wegovy pill reached 2.26 billion Danish kroner, or about $354 million, nearly double the analyst consensus estimate of 1.16 billion kroner, according to Jefferies analyst Michael Leuchten.
Weekly prescriptions for Wegovy have already surpassed 200,000 in the U.S., a threshold UBS describes as putting the drug on course to become a multi-blockbuster product.
UBS raised its sales forecast for the Wegovy pill to $2.2 billion for the current financial year, up from a prior estimate of $1.8 billion, reflecting the drug’s stronger-than-expected trajectory.
While Novo Nordisk leverages its first-mover advantage with the well-known Wegovy brand, Eli Lilly is betting that Foundayo’s freedom from strict fasting and water requirements will give it a competitive edge over time.
