Trulicity is the once-weekly dulaglutide pen Eli Lilly has sold for type 2 diabetes since 2014. Its current label approves it for blood-sugar control in adults and in children from age 10, and for reducing heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths — and, unusually for its class, that heart indication covers people who have risk factors but no established heart disease. It is not approved for weight loss. This page reads the label, its heart trial, its side-effect table and Lilly's savings terms.
Sources were read on 6 October 2026: the Trulicity prescribing information (Eli Lilly, DailyMed, effective 16 June 2026) and the Trulicity Savings Card terms on trulicity.com. This page reports what those documents say; it gives no dosing guidance and no view on whether Trulicity suits anyone.
What the label approves
| Indication | Who | Not covered |
|---|---|---|
| Glycaemic control, with diet and exercise | Adults and children aged 10 and older with type 2 diabetes | Type 1 diabetes, weight management |
| Reducing major adverse cardiovascular events | Adults with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease or multiple cardiovascular risk factors | Children; people without diabetes |
The second row is the detail most summaries miss. The heart indications of Ozempic and Victoza name adults with established cardiovascular disease; Trulicity's wording also reaches the larger group who have only risk factors, because that is who its outcome trial enrolled.
REWIND, the trial behind the heart indication
REWIND randomised 9,901 adults with type 2 diabetes to Trulicity 1.5 mg or placebo, on top of usual care, and followed them for a median 5.4 years. Its population was older and earlier in risk than most outcome trials: mean age 66, median HbA1c 7.2%, and 62.8% without established cardiovascular disease.
| Outcome (first occurrence) | Trulicity (n=4,949) | Placebo (n=4,952) | Hazard ratio (95% CI) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack or non-fatal stroke | 594 (12.0%) | 663 (13.4%) | 0.88 (0.79–0.99) |
| Cardiovascular death | 317 (6.4%) | 346 (7.0%) | 0.91 (0.78–1.06) |
From the label's section 14.5; the component results are listed "for supportive purposes" and the label states no statistical significance should be inferred from them.
Read as absolute numbers, the composite outcome happened to 1.4 more people per 100 on placebo than on Trulicity over about five years — roughly one event avoided for every 71 people treated for that period (glp1ledger arithmetic from the label's percentages, a crude ratio that ignores the timing of events). The upper end of the confidence interval, 0.99, sits just under 1.
The side-effect table
The label's adverse-reaction table pools placebo-controlled trials of 1,670 adults on Trulicity, with a mean exposure of 23.8 weeks. It reports only the two original strengths.
| Reaction | Placebo | 0.75 mg | 1.5 mg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nausea | 5.3% | 12.4% | 21.1% |
| Vomiting | 2.3% | 6.0% | 12.7% |
| Diarrhoea | 6.7% | 8.9% | 12.6% |
| Abdominal pain | 4.9% | 6.5% | 9.4% |
| Decreased appetite | 1.6% | 4.9% | 8.6% |
| Indigestion (dyspepsia) | 2.3% | 4.1% | 5.8% |
| Fatigue | 2.6% | 4.2% | 5.6% |
All gastrointestinal reactions together were reported by 21% on placebo, 32% on 0.75 mg and 41% on 1.5 mg, and led 3.5% of people on 1.5 mg to stop treatment (0.2% on placebo). Investigators graded them mild in about half of cases and severe in 7% (0.75 mg) and 11% (1.5 mg). How these rates compare across the class is on GLP-1 side effects and the GLP-1 with the fewest side effects.
The label's warnings are those of the class: a boxed warning on thyroid C-cell tumours seen in rodents (with a contraindication for people with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2), pancreatitis, hypoglycaemia when combined with insulin or a sulfonylurea, serious allergic reactions, kidney injury from dehydration, severe gastrointestinal disease, diabetic retinopathy complications, gallbladder disease and aspiration under anaesthesia.
The four pens
Trulicity is sold only as single-dose pens, each holding 0.5 mL of solution, in four strengths: 0.75 mg, 1.5 mg, 3 mg and 4.5 mg. There is no vial and no multi-dose pen. The label's storage rule: refrigerated at 2–8°C, protected from light, and if needed each pen can be kept at room temperature up to 30°C (86°F) for a total of 14 days; a frozen pen is not used. How storage rules differ between GLP-1 pens is on GLP-1 pen storage. The doses themselves are a prescriber's decision and are not set out here.
Children aged 10 and older
The paediatric approval rests on one trial (NCT02963766): 154 young people aged 10 to 17 (mean 14.5 years, 71% female, mean weight 90.5 kg) with type 2 diabetes, randomised to Trulicity or placebo for 26 weeks with a 26-week open-label extension. Trulicity was superior to placebo on HbA1c at week 26. The cardiovascular indication does not extend to children.
The savings card
Lilly's Trulicity Savings Card is a copay card for people whose commercial plan covers Trulicity. Its terms, read on trulicity.com:
| Term | Trulicity card |
|---|---|
| Patient pays | as little as $25 for a 1-, 2- or 3-month fill |
| A "month" | 28 days and up to 4 pens |
| Monthly cap | $150 per 1-month fill · $300 per 2 · $450 per 3 |
| Yearly cap | $1,950 per calendar year |
| Fill limit | 13 fills a year |
| Ends | 31 December 2026 |
| Excluded | Medicare, Medicaid and other government beneficiaries; under-18s; plans using an alternate funding programme |
The arithmetic matches Lilly's Mounjaro card: $25 is reached only where the plan's copay is $175 or less for a 28-day fill; above that the card is a flat $150 discount. The Mounjaro terms are on the Mounjaro savings card. Lilly's list-price page for Trulicity refused automated access when this page was written, so no list price is quoted here.
Trulicity in the class
Dulaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist fused to an antibody fragment, which is what makes it once-weekly. It is an older molecule than semaglutide or tirzepatide and has no weight-management version. The one head-to-head trial against Ozempic is set out on Trulicity vs Ozempic, and how it sits among every approved GLP-1 on which drugs are GLP-1s. The library entry on the molecule itself is PeptideLexicon's dulaglutide.
Sources
Eli Lilly, TRULICITY (dulaglutide) injection prescribing information, DailyMed setid 463050bd-2b1c-40f5-b3c3-0a04bb433309 (SPL effective 2026-06-16), sections 1, 3, 5, 6.1, 14.5, 14.6 and 16.2, read 6 October 2026 · Eli Lilly, Trulicity Savings Card terms and conditions, trulicity.com/savings-resources, read 6 October 2026 · pricinginfo.lilly.com/trulicity returned HTTP 403 to automated requests on 6 October 2026 and is not quoted.