Hims & Hers (HIMS-1.80%) stock slid Wednesday, a day after the company announced new weight-loss drug offerings — an update that left investors unimpressed.
Shares of the digital healthcare platform, which caters to millennials, fell as much as 6.8% before rebounding. The stock then dipped more than 4% in after-hours trading.
The selloff followed Hims & Hers’ announcement that it had added Eli Lilly’s (LLY+1.07%) popular weight-loss drug Zepbound and a generic GLP-1 medication to its platform.
The news comes in response to a recent decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which removed semaglutide — the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s (NVO+0.19%) Ozempic and Wegovy — from the agency’s shortage list. As a result, Hims & Hers will soon have to limit its previous offerings of the drug.
Last May, the company began selling compounded semaglutide — an off-brand version of Ozempic — starting at $199 a month. That helped drive the company’s total revenue up 69% last year, reaching $1.5 billion.
But now that the drug is no longer in short supply, Hims & Hers will only be able to sell personalized and clinically necessary formulations of compounded semaglutide in order to comply with current drug regulations.
The company’s newest offerings come with a steep price tag: Zepbound costs $1,899 a month, while its generic liraglutide is priced at $299 a month, according to the company’s website.
Wall Street hasn’t been enthusiastic about at least one of these new options.
“We view HIMS’ decision to sell branded tirzepatide as a way to provide more options to consumers, but would expect volume and revenue to be immaterial — even over an extended period of time,” Bank of America (BAC+0.47%) analyst Allen Lutz wrote in a note Tuesday. “We find it incredibly unlikely a consumer would go to HIMS to buy any branded GLP-1 for $1,899/month.”
Instead, analysts are waiting to see on how well the company’s generic liraglutide performs.
Hims & Hers first announced plans in November to introduce a generic version of liraglutide, an older GLP-1 weight-loss drug, this year. Unlike newer options that require weekly injections, liraglutide is taken daily. It is currently sold under Novo Nordisk’s Saxenda brand, though many of its patents have expired.
In a 56-week clinical trial, patients taking the once-daily injection lost more than 5% of their body weight on average. By comparison, those taking the highest dose of Eli Lilly’s weekly-injectable Zepbound lost more than 20% of their weight after 72 weeks in clinical trials.
“We think monitoring HIMS’ liraglutide launch will be relevant over the next year,” Lutz wrote. “If HIMS is able to generate commercial success for liraglutide, it would represent a significant milestone and validate the strength of HIMS’ brand, in our view.”
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