| Trial results
Eli Lilly said on November 9, 2026 that Foundayo (orforglipron), its once-daily weight-loss pill, reduced breathing interruptions in adults with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea and obesity or overweight. The two 52-week studies, called ATTAIN-OSA (NCT06649045), were double-blind and placebo-controlled. One enrolled 363 people who did not use CPAP, the other 349 people who kept using it.
| Measure | Study 1: no CPAP (363 people) | Study 2: with CPAP (349 people) |
|---|---|---|
| Breathing events per hour at the start (apnea-hypopnea index) | 50.7 | 57.6 |
| Change in events per hour, Foundayo | -21.1 | -18.3 |
| Change in events per hour, placebo | -4.3 | -5.5 |
| Percent change in events, Foundayo vs placebo | -43.8% vs -6.3% | -27.5% vs -3.0% |
| Body weight change, Foundayo vs placebo | -11.5% vs -1.8% | -11.2% vs -0.9% |
| Stopped because of side effects, Foundayo vs placebo | 12.2% vs 3.8% | 6.8% vs 0.6% |
Participants started at 0.8 mg once daily and moved up every four weeks to a maximum tolerated dose of 9 mg, 14.5 mg or 17.2 mg. The figures use Lilly's efficacy estimand, which counts people while they were taking the medicine, so they describe the effect of staying on treatment. The Atlas calculated the gap to placebo from the reported averages: about 16.8 events per hour without CPAP and 12.8 with CPAP.
The JAMA paper published the same day reports the main analysis a second way, counting everyone as randomized whether or not they kept taking the pill. On that basis, breathing events per hour fell by 17.8 with Foundayo and 4.5 with placebo in the study without CPAP, a gap of 13.2 (95% confidence interval 8.7 to 17.7), and by 17.3 and 5.3 in the study with CPAP, a gap of 12.0 (6.9 to 17.1). Both gaps are smaller than the 16.8 and 12.8 calculated above from Lilly's on-treatment figures, which is expected when people who stopped the medicine are counted. Six of seven key secondary measures also favored Foundayo. Stomach and gut side effects affected 68.0% of people taking Foundayo against 37.4% on placebo in the first study, and 70.6% against 36.6% in the second.
Lilly said 47.2% of people without CPAP and 33.7% with CPAP taking Foundayo had at least a 50% drop in breathing events, and that sleep apnea reached remission or became mild in 31.5% and 19.6%. The release gave no placebo rates for those two measures. Side effects were mostly stomach related (nausea, diarrhea, constipation, indigestion and vomiting) and mostly mild to moderate. Lilly says it plans to submit the results to the FDA for moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity or overweight by the end of 2026.
Lilly says the results were presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2026 and published in JAMA. Zepbound (tirzepatide) is already FDA approved for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity. Foundayo is not approved for sleep apnea.
Worth knowing: These are company-reported figures from Lilly's press release, and they count only people who stayed on treatment. The JAMA figures come from the published abstract, and the Atlas has not read the full paper. The studies did not compare Foundayo with any other medicine, so the numbers should not be set against results from other trials.
Related: Orforglipron medicine page | Foundayo | Tirzepatide
Sources: Eli Lilly press release, November 9, 2026 (via BioSpace); Fierce Pharma, November 2026; Malhotra A et al., JAMA, 2026; ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06649045.