Using Foundayo

Your Foundayo will arrive in a box containing blister packs of 30 pills. Before starting, check that the packaging is intact and that the expiry date on the box has not passed.

Store the pills in their original packaging at room temperature, below 25°C, away from direct sunlight and moisture. There’s no need to refrigerate them.

Each day, take a single pill from the blister pack.

If you notice a pill is damaged or discoloured, do not take it. Instead, contact us for advice.

Take one Foundayo tablet once a day, swallowing it whole. Foundayo can be taken at any time of day, with or without food, so there’s no need to plan your dose around mealtimes or follow a fasting routine.

Do not crush, chew or break the tablet.

If you miss a dose of Foundayo, take it as soon as you remember on the same day.

Don’t take more than one tablet in a day or double your next dose to make up for a missed one.

If you’ve missed seven or more doses in a row, speak to your clinician before restarting treatment. You may need to begin again at a lower dose to reduce the risk of side effects.

Because Foundayo has no fasting requirements and no timing restrictions, it fits around your routine rather than the other way around. Take it with your morning coffee, after dinner, or at whatever point in your day is easiest to remember. There is no right or wrong time.

But, taking it at roughly the same time each day can make it easier to remember and reduce the chance of missing a dose. If you can build it into a daily habit, that’s worth doing.

Everyone responds differently when starting Foundayo, and what you notice in the first few weeks can vary.

Some people notice appetite changes fairly early. You might start feeling fuller sooner at meals, experience fewer food cravings, or simply thinking about food less. For others, the shift is more gradual. Neither pattern means the treatment is or isn’t working; it often just reflects how your body adjusts to a new medication.

It’s worth knowing that Foundayo has six dose steps, and it can take around five months to reach the maximum dose where it is likely to see the most benefit. Everyone starts on the lowest starting dose to give the body time to adjust while reducing the chance of side effects. The focus in the early weeks is less on dramatic results and more about building a consistent daily habit and tolerating the medication well. If you’re not noticing much in the first month or two, don’t panic. This doesn’t mean the treatment is not working. Foundayo is one part of a long-term weight management plan, not a quick fix.

You may notice some side effects as your body adjusts. Nausea, constipation and digestive changes are the most commonly reported, and these often improve as treatment continues. It’s also normal for side effects to return temporarily when your dose is increased, even if they’d settled before. You don’t need to feel unwell for the treatment to be working, and feeling well is not a sign that something is wrong.

Your experience may also vary from week to week. What you’ve eaten, how well you’ve slept, your hydration levels and stress can all influence how you feel on any given day. Weight loss rarely happens in a straight line, and some weeks will feel more noticeable than others. Slower weeks are a normal part of the process.

When first starting treatment, you’ll always begin on the lowest dose of 0.8mg, but everyone’s journey with treatment looks a little different. Foundayo has six dose steps, and how your dose changes over time will depend on how you’re feeling, any side effects you’re experiencing, your weight loss progress and what you’re hoping to achieve.

The available doses are: 0.8mg, 2.5mg, 5.5mg, 9mg, 14.5mg and 17.2mg. Each dose must be taken for at least 30 days, meaning it takes around five months to reach the highest dose if you increase at every month.

There’s no single right dose for everyone. If you’re happy with your progress and your side effects feel manageable, there may be no need to move up. The aim is to find the dose that supports sustainable progress without increasing unnecessarily. The right dose for you will balance comfort, side effects and weight loss results. Some people stay on a lower dose for longer; others move up over time. The goal is always the same: to help you feel well, manage side effects and see sustainable progress at a pace that suits you.

Like all GLP-1 treatments, the most common side effects are digestive. They’re most noticeable when you first start treatment or when your dose is increased, and they often improve over time. You don’t need to feel unwell for the treatment to be working, and feeling well is not a sign that something is wrong.

Very common
Feeling sick (nausea), constipation, diarrhoea, being sick (vomiting), indigestion, stomach pain.

Common
Dizziness, headache, fast pulse, low blood pressure, bloating, burping, acid reflux or heartburn, flatulence, gallstones, hair loss, fatigue.

Uncommon
Changed sense of taste (dysgeusia), unusual skin sensations (dysaesthesia), low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia).

Serious
Acute pancreatitis. This is inflammation of the pancreas that can cause severe stomach pain which can radiate to your back that doesn’t go away. You should call 999 or go to A&E right away if you think you have pancreatitis.

You can find more information on side effects here.

Foundayo is a tablet that is taken once a day. It’s not an injection like other available weight loss treatments. There are no needles, no sharps disposal and no fridges required.

Foundayo is not a pill version of Mounjaro. Foundayo mimics one naturally occurring hormone produced after you eat, called GLP-1. Mounjaro mimics two: GLP-1 and GIP, and produces greater weight loss in clinical trials.

There’s also no need to fast before taking Foundayo. It can be taken at any time of day, with any food or drink.

It’s also worth knowing that on average, Foundayo produces less weight loss than the other GLP-1 treatments^*1. Injectable treatments, such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, result in greater weight loss on average in clinical trials^{2, 3}. Plus, the Wegovy pill produces greater weight loss than Foundayo if the strict fasting rules are consistently followed⁴.

*These figures come from separate clinical trials with different study designs and populations, so should not be interpreted as a direct comparison.

Foundayo should not be taken during pregnancy. If you can become pregnant, it’s important to use contraception while taking Foundayo. Foundayo can reduce the effectiveness of the oral contraceptive pill, which may increase the risk of pregnancy. If you use the oral contraceptive pill, you should use additional barrier contraception (such as condoms) or switch to a non-oral method for 30 days after starting Foundayo and for 30 days after each dose increase. Contraception that is not taken by mouth (such as the patch, ring, implant, injection or coil) is not affected.

If you’re planning to become pregnant, speak to your clinician before making any changes to your treatment. You should stop taking Foundayo at least three weeks before trying to conceive.

If you’ve reached your weight loss goal and are thinking about moving away from injections, there’s clinical evidence to support using Foundayo as a maintenance option.

A recent clinical trial followed people who switched to Foundayo (9mg) after 1 year and 5 months on an injectable.^*

• Those who switched from Wegovy pen regained ~1% of their original body weight over the following year
• Those who switched from Mounjaro regained ~5% over the following year

Continuing to follow a healthy diet and staying active can help you maintain your results.

*ATTAIN-MAINTAIN, 52-week study of adults with obesity who switched to the maximum tolerated dose of orforglipron for weight maintenance, after 72 weeks of treatment with either tirzepatide (10mg or 15mg) or semaglutide (1.7mg or 2.4mg). Individual results vary.

Before starting Foundayo, make sure you let your clinician know about any medicines you currently take. This includes prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, supplements and herbal remedies.

If you’re prescribed a new medicine while taking Foundayo, always let the prescribing doctor or pharmacist know you’re taking a GLP-1 treatment.

Some medicines may affect how Foundayo works, or Foundayo may affect how other medicines work. These include:

• Certain antibiotics (including clarithromycin and rifampicin)
• Antifungals (including itraconazole and ketoconazole)
• Antivirals (including ritonavir, efavirenz and telaprevir)
• Epilepsy medicines (including carbamazepine and phenytoin)
• Bosentan (used to treat pulmonary high blood pressure)
• St John’s Wort (a herbal supplement sometimes used for low mood or anxiety, available without a prescription)

You should also avoid grapefruit and grapefruit juice while taking Foundayo, as these can affect how the medicine is processed in your body.

If you take simvastatin or rosuvastatin for cholesterol, it’s important to indicate this before starting Foundayo. Foundayo increases the level of these medicines in your blood, so your dose may need to be reviewed before you begin treatment.

If you’re being treated with topotecan, it’s also important to indicate this before starting Foundayo. Foundayo may affect the level of this medicine in your blood.

If you take insulin or a sulfonylurea for diabetes, your risk of low blood sugar may be higher on Foundayo. Your clinician will advise you on this before you start.