Hims & Hers (HIMS-22.47%) made a killing last year selling an off-brand version of Ozempic, but with the drug’s shortage now over, the company will soon have to halt sales of its cheaper alternative. That said, the millennial-focused telehealth company still has a few options on the table.
Back in May, Hims & Hers started selling compounded semaglutide — the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s (NVO-1.17%) Ozempic and Wegovy — for just $199 a month. That’s a big difference compared to Ozempic’s $1,000 list price and Wegovy’s $1,349 price tag. Compounding means a pharmacy or physician customizes an approved drug to fit an individual patient’s needs.
Hims & Hers could sell this off-brand version because of recent shortages of GLP-1 drugs. Normally, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act prohibits making drugs that are just copies of commercially available ones. However, when drugs are in shortage, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t consider them commercially available.
Now that the shortage is over, Hims & Hers will likely have to stop selling compounded semaglutide. The FDA updated its drug shortage list on Friday, marking the branded versions of semaglutide as fully available. The agency also said it will start citing companies and healthcare providers that continue to offer “essential copies” of compounded semaglutide in the next 60 to 90 days.
Hims & Hers said it will stop offering its current iteration compounded semaglutide this year.
“We will have to start notifying customers in the coming month or two that they will need to start looking for alternative options on the commercial dosing,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum told investors during a call on Monday evening.
Still, the company expects its weight-loss business to generate at least $725 million in 2025.
Here are the weight-loss treatments Hims & Hers can still legally sell:
The company already offers monthly subscription for popular GLP-1 diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. These drugs work by mimicking a gut hormone that regulates blood sugar and suppress appetite.
Dudum also told investors that the company is open to a partnership like the one its rival Ro has with Eli Lilly, which lets Ro offer its members cheaper Zepbound in vials rather than the standard auto-injector pens.
However, he added, that there is still issues with the limited supply for branded weight-loss drugs.
“We still really can’t actually source the branded medications from our pharmacies for our own platform,” Dudum said.
He said this prevents the company for having a “durable offering” of branded weight-loss drugs at scale.
Hims & Hers also currently offers what it calls “oral medication kits” made up of medication and supplements that can aid in weight loss including bupropion, metformin, topiramate, vitamin B12, and naltrexone.
The company is also looking at offering personalized prescriptions of compounded semaglutide. Under the law, these prescriptions will need to be significantly different from branded medication on the market — differences can include personalized dosing or alternative administration methods.
In July, the company added Kåre Schultz, a longtime Novo Nordisk executive, to its board of directors. At the time, Schultz told Bloomberg that the company has a “long future” in selling compounded semaglutide. When asked if pharmacies will still be able to make compounded semaglutide after the shortages end, Schulz said he wasn’t worried because there would still be cases where patients need individualized prescriptions.
On Monday’s call, Hims & Hers CFO Oluyemi Okupe said that personalized semaglutide dosages will supplement the company’s core offerings.
The company announced in November that it plans to offer customers a generic version of liraglutide, an older GLP-1 weight loss drug, this year.
Liraglutide, is taken daily instead of weekly like newer options, and is currently sold under the brand name Saxenda by Novo Nordisk. Many of its patents have already expired.
In a 56-week-long clinical trial, the once-daily injection helped most patients lose over 5% of their weight. For comparison, patients taking the highest dose of Eli Lilly’s (LLY+2.18%) weekly-injectable Zepbound lost over 20% of their weight after 72 weeks during a clinical trial.
Dudum said the company plans to launch its liraglutide offering by midyear or early in the second half of the year.
The post Hims & Hers can’t sell off-brand Ozempic forever, but it can still sell these weight-loss meds appeared first on Quartz.
