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What is Foundayo?
Medically reviewed by
Craig Marsh, Clinical Reviewer
How is Foundayo different from current GLP-1 medications?
Unlike most GLP-1 RAs for weight loss, which are injected weekly, Foundayo is a pill you take every day. This is made possible because orforglipron, its active ingredient, is a small molecule, while other GLP-1 RAs are peptides (proteins). Peptides are easily broken down in your digestive system, so they’re usually given as injections.
How does Foundayo work?
Foundayo is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, which means it activates the same receptors as a hormone found naturally in your body called GLP-1, mimicking its effects in your body. These include:
- Increased insulin secretion: Insulin is a hormone that helps your body use glucose (a type of sugar) for energy. Foundayo increases insulin production, allowing muscles and the liver to use glucose more effectively. This leads to improved blood sugar control, which can reduce cravings and help treat diabetes.
- Decreased glucagon secretion: Foundayo reduces the release of glucagon, a hormone that signals the liver to produce glucose. With less glucagon, the liver makes less sugar, helping to lower blood sugar levels.
- Delayed gastric emptying: GLP-1RAs reduce stomach contractions and slow down how quickly food travels from your stomach to your gut. This helps you feel full after eating less, which can lead to reduced food intake. But this can also cause side effects like nausea, bloating, and stomach discomfort.
- Decreased appetite: Foundayo works on your brain to increase feelings of fullness and satiety while reducing hunger and food cravings (especially for sweet, high-fat, and savory foods).
- Improved heart function: GLP-1 receptors are found in heart cells and blood vessels, which is why Foundayo may help protect the heart, support better heart function, and lower blood pressure.
- Weight loss: By reducing appetite, cravings, and calorie intake, Foundayo can support weight loss. On average, participants in a clinical trial lost between 8.6% and 12.6% of their body weight, or about 19.8 to 29.3 pounds, after 26 weeks of taking Foundayo. In comparison, the placebo group lost only 2%, or about 4.6 pounds. After 36 weeks, the placebo group had lost an average of 2.3%, or 5.3 pounds, while those on Foundayo lost between 9.4% and 14.7%, or 21.6 to 34 pounds.
How effective is Foundayo?
Results from clinical studies show that Foundayo may help with both blood sugar control and weight loss.
In clinical trials, people with obesity who took Foundayo saw significant weight loss. Over 36 weeks, those on a 12mg dose lost an average of 9.4% of their body weight or 21.6 pounds, while those on a 45mg dose lost 14.7% or 34 pounds. In comparison, the placebo group only lost 2.3% or 5.3 pounds. Between 46% and 75% of people taking Foundayo (compared to just 9% in the placebo group) lost at least 10% of their body weight.
For people with type 2 diabetes, Foundayo also showed very good results in lowering blood sugar. A phase 2 study found that it reduced HbA1c levels—an important measure of long-term blood sugar control—by up to 2.10%. This was better than dulaglutide (Trulicity), which lowered HbA1c by 1.10%, and much higher than the placebo group, which only saw a 0.43% drop.
Like other GLP-1 receptor agonists, Foundayo is also believed to have potential benefits beyond blood sugar control and weight loss. Researchers think it may help with kidney, liver, and heart disease, though more studies are needed to confirm these effects.
What are the advantages of Foundayo compared to other GLP-1 medications?
Foundayo has some advantages compared to other GLP-1 agonists. Firstly, Foundayo is a small, non-peptide molecule. This means it can be made into a pill that you can take by mouth, which is more convenient for some people than injectable medications.
Because it’s smaller and simpler to make, Foundayo pills are also cheaper to produce, store, and package than injection medications. This could make it more affordable and easier to access, and immune from the same supply shortages that sometimes affect injectable treatments.
Foundayo is also less likely to become less effective over time, so you might not develop resistance as quickly as with other GLP-1 agonists. This is because it has a greater effect on a process called cAMP signaling (which regulates functions like metabolism and hormone release) and less effect on β-arrestin recruitment (which helps turn off cell receptors once they’ve been activated).
What’s more, clinical trials suggest that Foundayo may be even more effective than GLP-1 injections like Wegovy or Zepbound for weight loss.
Will Foundayo work better than Wegovy and Zepbound?
Early data suggests that Foundayo (orforglipron) could be more effective than semaglutide (Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Zepbound).
Here’s how the highest doses of these weight loss medications compared in clinical trials:
- Foundayo (orforglipron) 45mg: 14.7% weight loss over 36 weeks.
- Wegovy (semaglutide) 2.4mg: 14.9% weight loss at week 68.
- Zepbound (tirzepatide) 15mg: 20.9% weight loss at week 72.
It’s difficult to directly compare these treatments, since the clinical trials had different conditions like BMI, population size, and treatment duration.
But it seems that Foundayo 45mg was similarly effective to Wegovy 2.4mg in just over half the time. This suggests that Foundayo might work faster than other GLP-1 agonists.
Since Foundayo is a small molecule rather than a peptide-based medication like Wegovy and Zepbound, it’s absorbed more easily by the body. This allows more of the drug to reach the bloodstream and work effectively.
Foundayo also affects key processes that regulate hormone levels and receptor sensitivity, like cAMP signaling and β-arrestin recruitment. Because of this, you may be less likely to develop resistance to the medication over time than you would with other GLP-1 agonists.
So although there hasn’t been a direct study comparing it to other GLP-1 agonists for weight loss, early results suggest that Foundayo could be just as or even more effective than Wegovy and Zepbound.
What are the side effects of Foundayo?
Like all medications, Foundayo can have potential side effects. Similar to other GLP-1 medications, the most common side effects in clinical trials were gastrointestinal issues, such as nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, and acid reflux.
These side effects are dose-dependent, meaning they become more intense at higher doses. And they usually get better over time, as your body adjusts to the medication.
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