Orforglipron is on this site because it is sold alongside peptides, not because it is one. It is a small molecule — a GLP-1 receptor agonist that can be made as an ordinary tablet — and in the US it has been an approved medicine since 1 April 2026, under the name Foundayo. So its dose is not a matter of forum convention; there is a label. The trap is elsewhere: the numbers in the trial papers, and on the research tablets now listed online, are not the numbers on the label.
The label
FOUNDAYO, Eli Lilly, NDA 220934, approved 2026-04-01 (standard review), label effective 2026-07-29 on openFDA. Indication: with diet and physical activity, to reduce and keep off excess weight in adults with obesity, or with overweight plus at least one weight-related condition. The label adds that combining it with another GLP-1 receptor agonist is not recommended.
| Step | Daily dose | Earliest day on it | Tablet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.8 mg | 1 | pink round, "G1" |
| 2 | 2.5 mg | 31 | light yellow round, "G2" |
| 3 | 5.5 mg | 61 | greyish purple round, "G3" |
| 4 | 9 mg | 91 | pink oval, "G4" |
| 5 | 14.5 mg | 121 | light yellow oval, "G5" |
| 6 | 17.2 mg (maximum) | 151 | greyish purple oval, "G6" |
Each step requires at least 30 days on the one before. Steps 1 to 3 are the standard escalation; steps 4 to 6 are optional, "based on treatment response and tolerability". The earliest-day column is our arithmetic from the 30-day minimum, not a figure the label prints — in practice many people will sit longer on a step or stop below the top. Every strength comes in bottles of 30.
The rules around the number
- One tablet a day, with or without food, swallowed whole — not broken, crushed or chewed.
- Missed doses: take it as soon as possible; never double the next one. Seven or more consecutive missed doses means restarting the escalation at a lower dose, to reduce gastrointestinal effects.
- Interactions set the ceiling for some people. Orforglipron is cleared mainly by the liver enzyme CYP3A4. With a strong CYP3A4 inhibitor the maximum is 9 mg; strong inhibitors that also block OATP1B (ritonavir is the label's example) are to be avoided, as are strong CYP3A4 inducers. Simvastatin is capped at 20 mg a day alongside it, because orforglipron doubled simvastatin acid exposure.
- Contraindications: personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2, and serious hypersensitivity. The boxed warning carries the class's thyroid C-cell language, with an unusual addition: orforglipron is not active in rats or mice and produced no tumours in them, so the rodent signal behind the warning is the class's, not this drug's.
The number trap: 6, 12 and 36 mg
Anyone reading the trial literature meets different figures. The registry record for the first pivotal trial, ATTAIN-1 (NCT05869903), lists its arms as 6 mg, 12 mg and 36 mg. The label describes that same trial — and its companion in people with type 2 diabetes (NCT05872620) — as 5.5 mg, 9 mg and 17.2 mg. The label explains why: the trials used "an investigational orforglipron formulation", and it presents the results "as equivalent dosages of once daily FOUNDAYO".
| Trial arm (registry) | Label equivalent | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| 6 mg | 5.5 mg | 0.92 |
| 12 mg | 9 mg | 0.75 |
| 36 mg | 17.2 mg | 0.48 |
The ratio is not constant, so there is no single conversion factor: by the label's own equivalence, the marketed tablet delivers more exposure per milligram than the trial formulation did, and more so at the top. The consequence is simple. A milligram figure for orforglipron means something only for a named formulation. A "36 mg" figure from a paper and a "17.2 mg" figure from a pharmacy describe the same arm.
What the ladder produced
The label's efficacy table, 72 weeks, all randomised patients:
| Placebo | 5.5 mg | 9 mg | 17.2 mg | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trial 1, no diabetes (n=3,127) | −2.1% | −7.4% | −8.3% | −11.1% |
| Trial 2, type 2 diabetes (n=1,613) | −2.5% | −5.1% | −7.0% | −9.6% |
These are the label's intent-to-treat figures, which count everyone randomised, including those who stopped the drug, with missing weights imputed; published papers often lead with a larger figure for people who stayed on it. Across both trials 8% on orforglipron stopped because of adverse reactions (6% at 5.5 mg, 9% at 9 mg, 10% at 17.2 mg) against 3% on placebo. The most common side effects were gastrointestinal — nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, vomiting, indigestion — plus headache, fatigue and hair loss. GLP1Ledger's comparison of GLP-1 side-effect rates sets orforglipron's head-to-head data beside the injectables.
Why daily, and why a pill works
The label gives an elimination half-life of about 29 to 49 hours, peak levels 4 to 8 hours after a dose, steady state after about one week, and absolute bioavailability of 77% at 0.8 mg. Food made no clinically relevant difference at marketed doses. A half-life of one to two days is why it is daily rather than weekly like semaglutide and tirzepatide; being a small molecule rather than a peptide is why it survives the gut at all. How half-lives set dosing intervals across the class is on our peptide half-life page.
What is sold outside the pharmacy
On 2026-09-28 two research-chemical stores that publish their catalogue prices listed orforglipron:
| Store listing | Strength | Count | List price |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Sublingual Tablets" | 6 mg | 90 | $200.98 |
| "Sublingual Tablets" | 12 mg | 90 | $380.48 |
| Capsules | 6 mg | 90 | $198.95 |
A third store showed a product page with no price. Three things stand out. The strengths are 6 and 12 mg — the investigational trial arms, not any approved tablet, so a reader converting them to the label ladder is converting between formulations nobody has characterised. The label says the tablet is swallowed whole, while one listing is sublingual, a route no trial tested. And nothing about these products — identity, content or formulation — has been verified; they are sold under the research-use-only convention explained on our research-use-only page. How to read a vendor's figure is on our page about reading a dosing claim.
What is not known
- How the investigational milligram figures map to any product other than Foundayo.
- Any trial of sublingual orforglipron.
- Long-term outcomes beyond 72 weeks at the marketed doses; 53 studies are registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, 10 recruiting.
The dose for any individual is a prescriber's decision. The rest of the class is gathered on our peptide dosage chart.
Sources and dates
- FOUNDAYO (orforglipron) tablets, Eli Lilly and Company, NDA 220934. openFDA drug label, set id 8ac446c5-feba-474f-a103-23facb9b5c62, effective 2026-07-29. Sections 1, 2, 4, 6.1, 7, 11, 12.3, 14, 16. Read 2026-09-28.
- openFDA Drugs@FDA, application NDA220934: original approval 2026-04-01 (standard review), six strengths listed as prescription. Read 2026-09-28.
- ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05869903 (ATTAIN-1), arms and status, read 2026-09-28; search, intervention "orforglipron": 53 studies, 10 recruiting.
- Public WooCommerce catalogue endpoints of three research-chemical stores, searched for "orforglipron", 2026-09-28. List prices, not verified purchases.