The partnership forged by Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Hims & Hers (Hims) in April seemed to bring together two giant brands on the growing weight loss market. This is why the sudden benefits less than two months later amazed and perplexed the initiates.
Hims & Hers relied on the composition, which represented 15% of income last year, as part of the history of growth it presented to investors. He accused Novo Nordisk of having forced him to “direct” patients to the Wegovy brand, while Novo Nordisk accused him of leading patients to aggravated drugs or unprepared “Copycat”.
“In the past few weeks, the Novo Nordisk sales team has made us feel more and more pressure on clinical standards and direct patients to Wegovy. We refuse to be solid by anti -competitive requests from any pharmaceutical company,” wrote the CEO of Hims & Hers, Andrew Dudum in an article on X.
“We … will not compromise the integrity of our platform to appease a third party or preserve collaboration,” he added.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initially authorized the products composed on the market when Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo Nordisk could not produce enough GLP-1 drugs and were faced with shortages. However, after the end of the shortages in recent months, the FDA has made the composition illegal.
But composition pharmacies claim that they always have the right to produce if patients cannot take brand products due to allergies or tolerability problems, which is authorized under FDA rules as a “personalized” medication.
Hims & Hers refused to provide additional comments on the issue and refused an interview request.
Novo Nordisk, on the other hand, told Yahoo Finance in a declaration sent by email according to which he had ended the collaboration because of the compound semaglutide, which are copies of Wegovy according to the same key ingredient but with other additives.
Hims & Hers “did not adhere to the law which prohibits mass sales of drugs composed under the false appearance of the ‘personalization’ ‘and disseminates a misleading marketing which endangers the safety of patients,” Navo Nordisk told Yahoo Finance in a press release.
Hims & Hers continue to ask patients if they are interested in “personalized” treatments when they are looking for GLP-1 on the site, which was the basis of the decline in Novo Nordisk, according to Michael Schnell, director of M&A of Healthcare M&A in West Monroe.
However, Novo Nordisk knew it that Hims and Hers would continue to sell the copycés during the first announcement of the agreement in April, according to Dudum.
“We continue to expect the personalized semaglutide to exist on the platform. This is something that we shared during the last call, and it is something that we shared earlier with Novo,” he said during a call for results in May.
Novo Nordisk has launched the partnership via Centerwell, the Maple Humana (Hmm) mail order pharmacy, which would exempt drugs prescribed by three Télésanté suppliers – including Hims & Hers.
The agreement did not include any requirements for Hims and his to stop selling composed semaglutide, Novo Nordisk confirmed Tuesday in Yahoo Finance. And Hims & Hers never indicated that it would stop selling copies.
In April, Hims & Hers began adding “brand shooting” to its platform, noting that these were “kits of oral drugs, composed semaglutide and brand semaglutide”, according to Craig Primack, Hims & Hers Vice-President of Main Weight Loss.
Branded shooting drugs are Eli Lilly Zepbound’s weight loss medication and Diabetes Diabetes.
Hims & Hers is not one of the telesome offers directly to Eli Lilly consumers, but it can sell injectables through the normal large acquisition process as it does for other drugs.
The CEO of Hims & Hers, Dudum, said during a call for results in May that he had been under discussion to integrate into the Eli Lilly platform without success.
This decision indicated an important step for Hims & Hers, which began as a TV platform in 2017, addressing the health of men with out-pages products such as hair loss and erectile dysfunction drugs. Dudum suggested that this could open doors to brand pharmaceutical opportunities.
“Over time, we expect a wider collaboration in the industry, pharmaceutical players, innovative leaders in diagnostic and preventive tests to world class suppliers. We are impatient to provide future updates because this collaboration and others as it continues to evolve,” said Dudum.
A combined image shows an Zepbound injection pen, Eli Lilly’s weight loss medication and Wegovy boxes, manufactured by Novo Nordisk. (Reuters / Hollie Adams / Brendan McDermid / Combination / File photo) ·Reuters / Reuters
It remains to be seen if this spit with Novo Nordisk could harm future pharmaceutical relations for Hims & Ho.
Schnell said that this decision could indicate either that Dudum believes that it is necessary to remain faithful to the roots of the company as an access point for drugs at a lower cost or, despite regulatory limitations, compounds GLP-1 could always be more profitable than the sale of brand medicines.
“If you are him, you try to reach an escape speed here. In the long term, he must know that you cannot make your way to be a fully mature business,” said Schnell.
Jefferies analyst Glen Santangelo wrote customers in an April note that the decision to work more with brand medicines was positive. However, he also noted that the prospects for Hims and his have remained uncertain.
“An examination of weight loss offers on the HIMS website suggests a transition to brand GLP-1 … with less emphasis on personal composition. We think this was necessary to stay outside the regulation / IP [intellectual property] reticle. This change began to weigh on web traffic. While 1Q seems well, we emphasize that traffic has slowed down since the highly bowl lifting issues on [forward estimates]Said Santangelo.
Follow -up requests with Santangelo have not been returned.
But with Hims and his own now in a public Tiff with Novo Nordisk, it remains to be seen how Hims and his own.
“If it is pushed to pay this way, it is very difficult for many growth projections they have,” said Schnell.
The split with Novo Nordisk has already cost Dudum for its place among billionaires – losing $ 400 million on Monday – while the company’s shares fell 35% on Monday.
Anjalee Kachmli is the main health journalist at Yahoo Finance, covering everything that is pharmaceutical, insurance, care services, digital health, PBM and health and policy of health and policy. This includes GLP-1, of course. Follow Anjalee like Anjkhem on social media platforms X, Linkedin and Bluesky @Anjkhem.
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