Lilly CEO Dave Ricks says Foundayo winning new pill patients

Lilly CEO Dave Ricks says Foundayo winning new pill patients

Mon, September 21, 2026 at 8:29 PM GMT+3 2 min read

• LLY +0.45%

Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said Monday that Foundayo now accounts for one in three new oral weight loss drug starts in the United States, with the pill capturing a larger slice of that market each week. Dave Ricks made the remarks in an exclusive interview with CNBC.

"We're confident long term" about Lilly's place in the pill segment, Dave Ricks told CNBC, noting that Foundayo rollouts in additional countries are planned for later this year.

The comments came as Lilly broke ground on a $6.5 billion manufacturing facility at Generation Park in Houston, Texas — nearly a year after first announcing the project. The plant is expected to be operational by 2030, the company said. In addition to Foundayo, it will manufacture the core chemical components used in Lilly's treatments spanning cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology, and neuroscience.

Foundayo entered the U.S. market in April and posted $98 million in second-quarter revenue, the company said. The start of Medicare obesity drug coverage in July is seen as a catalyst for further uptake of the pill, the company said.

The Houston plant is part of a broader manufacturing push by Lilly. Early last year, Lilly pledged an additional $27 billion toward four new production sites, bringing its total manufacturing investment since 2020 to more than $50 billion, the company said.

Lilly's oral drug competes against a pill from Danish rival Novo Nordisk. Lilly said in August that it held about a 61% share of the overall weight loss and diabetes market in the second quarter.

Foundayo launched in the United Kingdom in August, making Britain the first country in Europe to offer the treatment. The pill is available there through private prescription, priced between £100 and £120 per month — lower than Lilly's injectable Mounjaro, which costs £330 per month through private providers. The European Union had not yet completed its assessment of Foundayo at the time of the U.K. launch.

Shares of Novo Nordisk dropped Monday after the Danish drugmaker's long-term strategy did little to reassure investors who are worried about how it will stack up against Lilly in the obesity and diabetes space, according to CNBC.