Health

Eli Lilly's Weight-Loss Pill Gets First European Nod in UK

Is Foundayo a breakthrough making weight loss accessible to millions or a reckless drug masking a brutal hidden cost?

Published AUG 11

Eli Lilly's Weight-Loss Pill Gets First European Nod in UK

Story

Above: The new Foundayo weight-loss oral pill. Image credit: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The Spin

Narrative A

Foundayo is a massive breakthrough — a once-daily pill with no food restrictions that's far cheaper to manufacture than injectable alternatives, making meaningful weight loss and improved blood glucose control accessible to far more people living with obesity. More treatment options mean more people get the help they actually need.

Science Media Centre

Narrative B

Weight-loss pills are being handed out like candy while hiding a brutal cost — up to a third of the weight lost is muscle, equivalent to 20 years of aging in just over a year. When people stop, two-thirds of the fat returns while the muscle doesn't. Calling this health care for people nowhere near a medical crisis is reckless.

Sama Hoole on X