Maggie Linton has never been fond of injections, so when she heard that Eli Lilly was working on a GLP-1 pill, she was eager to sign up for a clinical trial and put the new medication to the test.
Linton took the daily pill, called Foundayo, for nearly two years and said she lost around 60 pounds.
“It’s very easy to use,” she told NBC News’ Anne Thompson in a segment that aired on TODAY on April 2.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Foundayo on April 1. It’s set to hit the market next week. It follows the FDA’s approval of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy GLP-1 pill in December.
Linton, 77, told Thompson she started losing weight after taking Foundayo for about a month. She also said it helped improve her high blood pressure and cholesterol.
“It made a big difference almost immediately,” she said. “I could see my weight, as well as the cholesterol and everything else, going down all at the same time.”
For Linton, Foundayo’s side effects were limited, she said.
“About the only thing that I experienced when I first started was a little bit of constipation. But I learned how to eat better, move a little bit more, and that kind of went away,” she said.
Linton started taking Foundayo when she weighed 234 pounds. She’s regained about 10 pounds of the 60 she lost during the trial and now hovers between 185-187 pounds. She is 20 pounds away from her goal weight.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” she said.
These days, physical activity is a priority for Linton.
“I do Tai Chi, I do walking and I take Pilates. The whole idea is to just stay as active as possible for as long as possible,” she said.
Thanks to her weight loss, Linton said she is able to sleep better and has more energy. While taking the pill, she noticed that she didn’t have “a desire to eat as much.”
“That’s the one thing that it really does — curtail your need to eat. I found myself just eating smaller portions constantly,” she said.
Although she’s now been off the pill for six months, Linton said she still doesn’t eat as much as she once did.
“I go out to dinner, and because of the size portions, I almost always bring something home to eat the next day,” she said.
Linton noted that her “blood pressure and everything continues to be down.”
“So even the after effects of being off of it for almost six months, I’m still feeling good, still have lots of energy, and now that spring is here, I’m going to be walking a lot more,” she said.
Asked if she would take Foundayo again, she said “without a doubt.”
What to Know About Foundayo
Dave Ricks, chair and CEO of Eli Lilly, told Thompson that Foundayo works by “activating the same pathway as the injectable” versions of GLP-1 drugs.
However, research has shown the pills to lead to less weight loss than the injections. People on the highest dose of Foundayo lost 12% of their body weight, about 27 pounds on average, less than Lilly’s weight-loss injectable Zepbound.
Because pills are easier to manufacture than injectables, Ricks said Eli Lilly will be able to produce Foundayo “at massive scale.”
He added that the oral pill can also help people who’d been using injectables maintain their weight loss.
“Now the answer is … you can switch to Foundayo as a maintenance therapy. And we produce some great data that demonstrates once people get to a healthy body weight, they can maintain that with Foundayo,” he said.
Foundayo is available in six doses and can be taken at any time of day without meal restrictions — unlike the Wegovy pill, which requires an empty stomach and abstaining from eating or drinking for 30 minutes afterward.
“The other option on market has very specific ways in which you have to take it, like on an empty stomach and with four ounces of water,” Tulane Weight Loss Center medical director Dr. Shauna Levy told Thompson.
“Foundayo can be taken at any time with any amount of liquid, with other medications and other foods. And I think that the ease of use is probably the most important aspect of it.”
Levy, who has patients currently taking the Wegovy pill, said “the biggest discouraging factor for them is how hard it is to take it.”
The lowest dose of Foundayo will cost around $149 a month for anyone who’s paying out of pocket, similar to the cost of the Wegovy pill. Higher doses of Foundayo could cost up to $349 a month.
Although it’s still prohibitively expensive for many people, Levy said Foundayo is “yet another tool in our toolbox.”
“There are different patients who require different medications at different time for different stages of their disease. And so just having more options allows us to just treat more people,” she said.
Consult a health care provider to determine if a GLP-1 weight loss medication is right for you.
