Wegovy Pill vs Foundayo: The Two Oral GLP-1s
For the first time there is a real choice between two GLP-1 tablets. They cost the same at maintenance. On their own trials they do not perform the same, and only one of them lets you eat when you like.
- Same price$299 a month at the maintenance strength of either tablet
- −13.6%Wegovy tablet at 64 weeks, against Foundayo’s −11.1% at 72
- Fasting windowRequired by the Wegovy tablet, not by Foundayo
- No head to headNobody has trialled these two against each other
The short version
Both are once-daily tablets for weight management. Both cost $299 a month at their maintenance strength from the manufacturer’s own pharmacy. On each drug’s own trial the Wegovy tablet produced the larger weight reduction — and it is also the one that comes with a daily routine attached.
They are not the same kind of molecule, which is the root of most of the differences below. The Wegovy tablet is semaglutide — a peptide, the same one in the injection, formulated with an absorption enhancer so that some of it survives the stomach. Foundayo is orforglipron, a small molecule that was never a peptide and never needed rescuing from digestion.
Read the comparison carefully
No trial has tested these two against each other. Every figure here comes from separate trials with different participants, different lengths — 64 weeks against 72 — and different placebo groups. That is enough to see a direction, and not enough to declare a winner. Anyone presenting this as a settled result is going beyond the evidence.
Side by side
| Wegovy tablet | Foundayo | |
|---|---|---|
| Molecule | Semaglutide, a peptide | Orforglipron, a small molecule |
| Application | NDA 218316 | NDA 220934 |
| Maintenance strength | 25 mg | 17.2 mg |
| Self-pay, per month | $299 | $299 |
| Billed month | 30 tablets | 30 days |
| Must be taken fasting | Yes | No |
| Drug interactions via CYP3A4 | No | Yes |
| Trial weight change | −13.6% at 64 weeks | −11.1% at 72 weeks |
What each one did in its own trial
Both figures are the label’s own intent-to-treat results at the maintenance strength, each against its own placebo group. The responder rows — how many people hit a given threshold — matter more than the averages, because an average hides how differently people respond.
| Outcome | Wegovy tablet | Its placebo | Foundayo | Its placebo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average weight change | −13.6% | −2.4% | −11.1% | −2.1% |
| Lost 10% or more | 59.8% | 14.4% | 54.5% | 13% |
| Lost 15% or more | 47.0% | 5.5% | 35.9% | 6% |
| Lost 20% or more | 27.9% | 3.1% | 18.4% | 2.9% |
The gap widens as the threshold rises. On averages the two are about two and a half percentage points apart, but at the 20% threshold the Wegovy tablet reaches roughly half as many people again. If a large reduction is the goal rather than any reduction, that row is the one that matters.
Both placebo columns land in the same narrow range, which is mildly reassuring — it suggests the two trials were not measuring wildly different populations. It does not make them the same trial.
The difference that shows up every single day
Because the Wegovy tablet is a peptide, getting it absorbed requires an empty stomach. Its label directs that it be taken in the morning before eating, with water only, followed by a wait before any food, other drinks, or other oral medicines.
Foundayo’s label carries no equivalent restriction — it states the tablet is taken with or without food. That is the practical dividend of not being a peptide, and over a year it is roughly 365 mornings of difference.
The trade runs both ways
Being a small molecule is not purely an advantage. It also means Foundayo is processed by the liver enzyme CYP3A4, so it has drug interactions the peptide does not — including with common statins and with drugs that raise or lower its levels in the blood. Those are set out on our orforglipron side effects page. The Wegovy tablet’s constraint is a daily routine; Foundayo’s is your other medicines.
On price, they are the same drug
At maintenance both cost $299 a month from their manufacturer’s own self-pay pharmacy, and both are billed in 30-day months — so a year is about 12 fills of either, roughly $3,650. Unusually for this class, the annual arithmetic does not separate them at all.
They differ at the bottom of the ladder rather than the top. Foundayo’s two lowest strengths are $149 and its next is $199, though the reductions on two of those are dated and run only to 31 December 2026. The Wegovy tablet’s lowest strength is also $149. Full ladders for both, with every dated condition, are on our cost comparison.
Since price is level at maintenance, it drops out of the decision — which leaves effectiveness, the daily routine, and your other medicines as the things that actually separate them.
What this comparison cannot tell you
- Which one is better tolerated. The Wegovy label’s adverse-reaction tables report the injection, not the tablet, so there is no like-for-like side-effect table to set against Foundayo’s. We will not manufacture one by borrowing the injection’s numbers.
- Which one will work better for you. These are averages and thresholds across trial populations; individual results in both trials varied enormously.
- How to take either of them, or how to move between strengths. That is set by the label and the prescriber.
- Whether either beats the injections. Both are below tirzepatide on its own trial figures; the injections remain the more effective route, at a higher price.
Sources and method
- Wegovy tablet figures. The approved prescribing information for Wegovy (semaglutide) tablets, NDA 218316. Weight results are the label’s Study 7, a 64-week trial of 205 patients on the tablet against 102 on placebo.
- Foundayo figures. The approved prescribing information for Foundayo (orforglipron), NDA 220934, Trial 1 at 72 weeks.
- Prices. Read from each manufacturer’s own self-pay pharmacy pages on 5 September 2026, not from an aggregator.
- What we could not verify. Any direct comparison. No head-to-head trial of these two exists, so every difference here is inference across separate trials of different lengths and populations, and is presented as such. We also have no tablet-specific adverse-reaction table for Wegovy, as noted above.
- Method. Label figures rather than manufacturer announcements, intent-to-treat rather than on-treatment analyses, and each drug’s result shown against its own placebo group so the comparison is of gaps rather than of headline numbers.
Orforglipron index → Semaglutide index → Cost without insurance →
Both labels read 5 September 2026. We recheck this page if either label is revised, if prices change, or if a head-to-head trial is published.