Him & Hers (NYSE:HIMS) shares are set to open 23% lower at about $18 after the telehealth company announced over the weekend that it will stop offering a compounded oral version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy, following regulatory scrutiny and industry backlash.
“Since launching the compounded semaglutide pill on our platform, we’ve had constructive conversations with stakeholders across the industry,” Hims & Hers said in a statement on Saturday. “As a result, we have decided to stop offering access to this treatment. We remain committed to the millions of Americans who depend on us for access to safe, affordable, and personalized care.”
The company had announced earlier last week that it would sell a compounded semaglutide pill, positioned as a lower-cost alternative to Novo’s recently launched oral formulation. The offering was set to launch at a discounted introductory price of as little as $49 per month.
Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) criticized the move and threatened legal action, arguing the product represented unauthorized compounding of a patented drug. The company said it planned to pursue regulatory and legal remedies, describing the offering as “illegal mass compounding.”
“This is another example of Hims & Hers’ historic behaviour of duping the American public with knock-off GLP-1 products, and the FDA has previously warned them about their deceptive advertising of GLP-1 knock-offs,” Novo Nordisk said in a statement last Thursday.
The US Food and Drug Administration also intervened, stating it planned to take steps to restrict access to the active ingredients used in popular GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy, Ozempic, and Zepbound, and indicated it could refer the matter to the Department of Justice.