Eli Lilly says it has “no affiliation” with Hims & Hers after market confusion

Eli Lilly said in a statement Tuesday evening that it has “no affiliation” with Hims & Hers after the market appeared to briefly misinterpret a statement from the telehealth platform as some sort of partnership.

Hims & Hers released a statement on Tuesday detailing how it will move forward with its weight-loss offerings, which was mostly in line with what the company has previously announced. But there was an Easter egg that took the spotlight: the telehealth platform unexpectedly dropped it was offering “branded tirzepatide” — in other words, Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight-loss drug, Zepbound — on its platform.

Investors, hungry for positive news about Hims & Hers’ ability to sell GLP-1s, sent the stock up as much as 7% in intraday trading. Then it came right back down as they realized it wasn’t the “deal” or “partnership” some initially thought it was.

Clearly there is some confusion. Here’s what we know:

How did we get here? GLP-1 drugs are all the rage. They’re really good at helping people lose weight and the companies that make them have made a ton of money selling them at really high prices.

There are currently two GLP-1s you need to know about. Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, which is made by Novo Nordisk. Then there’s tirzepetide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound, which is made by Eli Lilly.

These drugs are so popular that they were in shortage for several years. This allowed companies like Hims & Hers to sell cheap compounded copies of them, giving them a bite of the GLP-1 revenue apple. But in February, the Food and Drug Administration declared that the shortage was over, limiting the ability of companies that aren’t the patent holders of the drugs to sell them.

Hims & Hers investors are clearly antsy about where the company’s weight-loss business is going amid the uncertainty, and Tuesday’s announcement was supposed to help clear that up — until it didn’t.

What Tuesday’s announcement is: Hims & Hers users can now get a prescription for Zepbound, just like they can for other branded medications on the platform. But the drug costs about $1,899 a month, according to the company’s website. Since it’s definitely not the cheapest way to get Zepbound, the value of having it on the platform may not be to get people on it, but to steer customers to its cheaper generic or compounded options.

What it is not: a “partnership,” like the ones Eli Lilly has with Hims & Hers’ competitors. Patients on Ro, for example, can get branded vials of Zepbound on that platform, one of the cheapest options for getting it without insurance.

To be clear, Hims & Hers never said it had a partnership with Eli Lilly, nor did it mention the company even once in its announcement. Eli Lilly didn’t issue a statement at all until it felt the need to set the record straight.

What was missed: the company officially launched its generic liraglutide, which is an older and less effective GLP-1 developed by Novo Nordisk, at $299 a month. The company had previously said this was its move.