By Sneha S K
May 8 (Reuters) - Eli Lilly's new weight-loss pill, Foundayo, was prescribed 7,335 times in the U.S. in the fourth week, a modest uptake compared to rival Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill, analysts said.
Wegovy pill, launched in January, has the first-mover advantage in the oral weight-loss drug market over Foundayo that was introduced a few months later in April.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Trung Huynh said while Foundayo's prescription numbers were weaker, "we're beginning to see investors
looking past initial weekly script tracking metrics as the barometer for Foundayo's future potential."
Investors are betting that the next generation of weight-loss pills will expand the market to millions of patients and help counter pricing pressure.
Lilly executives said last week that Foundayo has over 8,000 prescribers, a third of whom have not previously written an oral GLP-1 prescription, and more than 20,000 patients have been treated.
Huynh said that Foundayo's prescriptions need to rise soon "in order to hit (the) consensus (expectation)."
He added that the pill will need about 22,000 prescriptions per week to hit the consensus expectations of $160 million in second-quarter sales.
Foundayo was approved in the U.S. on April 1, with prescriptions accepted immediately on LillyDirect, while shipping started on April 6. Broad availability through U.S. retail pharmacies and telehealth providers began on April 9.
Analysts cited Foundayo's prescription numbers from IQVIA, which provides data on retail prescriptions along with samples of telehealth, Lilly Direct, and mail-order prescriptions.
Two analysts said there may be gaps in telehealth prescription data, likely leading to fluctuation in weekly Foundayo data.
Lilly said last week that more than 12 major telehealth firms were offering Foundayo, accounting for about 35% of launch volume.
(Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
