Hims & Hers Health just can’t stay away from the drama.
Today, shares of the telehealth company plunged 34.65% after Novo Nordisk announced it is ending their partnership just two months after the competitors struck an unlikely alliance. The Danish pharma giant accused Hims & Hers of selling knockoff versions of Wegovy—its lucrative GLP-1 drug.
Today’s news is just the latest twist in an ongoing saga for Hims & Hers over these popular weight-loss medications. Back in May of last year, shares soared after the company announced it was selling a cheaper, knockoff version of lucrative GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy. Then, the stock plummeted in February after the real, blue-chip drugs were taken off the FDA shortage list, requiring telehealth firms to stop selling compounded semaglutide except in cases where a patient couldn’t take the brand version.
But then in April, Novo seemingly swooped in and saved the company, inking a deal with Hims & Hers to sell Wegovy directly to consumers without insurance for a fraction of its $1,000 price tag.
The roller coaster ride took its latest twist today after Novo Nordisk executives called their deal with Hims & Hers off, noting that they believed Hims & Hers would de-emphasize the sale of its compound version of GLP-1 drugs and steer them toward Wegovy.
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Hims & Hers shot back, arguing Novo Nordisk was pushing the company to only prescribe Wegovy to patients. “We refuse to be strong-armed by any pharmaceutical company’s anticompetitive demands that infringe on the independent decision making of providers and limit patient choice,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum wrote on X in response to Novo’s decision.
The weight-loss drug war
The original deal between Hims and Novo didn’t actually require the telehealth company to stop making compounded semaglutide. In fact, Hims made it clear when the deal was announced it was still planning on selling compounded semaglutide in some form, in addition to the Wegovy shots.
Citi analyst Daniel Grosslight wrote in a note today that without the Novo Nordisk partnership, Hims & Hers was going to face an uphill legal battle justifying its selling of the GLP-1 drugs.
Today’s news comes at an already tough time for Novo Nordisk: Its shares are down 20% year to date as it loses ground to Eli Lilly and its weight-loss drug Zepbound. Since the original deal in April, Novo fired CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, and is still searching for a replacement. Shares fell 5.49% this afternoon, while Eli Lilly jumped 1.04%.—LB