Hims & Hers falls after a court ruling on a drug it never sold
The ruling on a drug similar to one Hims & Hers sold dims the hope that a judge could allow the company to keep selling copycat Ozempic and Wegovy.
Hims & Hers shares fell Thursday after more news poured in continuing to drive the point home that the tele-pharmacy likely can’t count on selling a significant amount of copycat Ozempic and Wegovy.
A federal judge ruled in favor of the Food and Drug Administration late Wednesday, ordering copycat pharmacies to stop selling exact versions of Zepbound and Mounjaro, popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs made by Eli Lilly. Compounding pharmacies can only sell exact copies of a drug while it’s in a shortage.
Hims & Hers has never sold compounded tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s drugs. It does sell compounded semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, though it said it will stop after May 2025.
That ruling was in a lawsuit filed by the Outsourcing Facilities Association, a trade association representing compounding pharmacies, which argued that the FDA’s abrupt order to cease compounding tirzepatide after it was removed from the shortage list in October was “reckless and arbitrary.” But the OFA has also filed a parallel lawsuit against the FDA over its removal of semaglutide from the shortage list on February 21.
Both cases are before Judge Mark T. Pittman of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, suggesting OFA may get a similar result in the case regarding semaglutide. The ruling dims any glimmer of hope that a judge could somehow allow Hims & Hers to continue selling copycat Ozempic and Wegovy.
Hims & Hers shares have fallen more than 46% since semaglutide was taken off the shortage list. On Wednesday, the company took a hit after Novo Nordisk announced that it would offer Wegovy to uninsured patients at a discounted rate.
Hims & Hers has said its game plan moving forward is to sell Novo Nordisk’s older, less effective GLP-1 drugs and oral medications. The tele-pharmacy sells other generic drugs for erectile dysfunction, hair loss, and mental health conditions.
