Novo Nordisk Launches Suit to Knock Out Hims & Hers’ Weight Loss Knockoffs

Novo Nordisk wants Hims & Hers to get theirs.

On Monday, the Danish pharmaceutical giant made good on legal threats to sue the online telehealth provider, which has been mass marketing cheaper, unapproved copycat versions of its blockbuster Ozempic and Wegovy weight loss drugs.

Throwing Their Weight Around

Hims & Hers invited enough fury from pharma sector rivals to burn a week’s worth of calories last Thursday when it announced plans to sell a knockoff of Novo’s new oral weight loss pill, which was approved for US sales less than two months ago. Shares in Novo and its chief competitor, Mounjaro and Zepbound-maker Eli Lilly, each took a roughly 7% tumble. Not to mess around, Novo immediately blasted Hims, alleging the nine-year-old telehealth company is guilty of “duping the American public with knock-off GLP-1 products” and said legal and regulatory action would follow.

And so it did. First, on Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration jumped into the fray, warning that a crackdown on the use of GLP-1 ingredients in unapproved compounded drugs is nigh. A day later, Hims backed down and said it would not offer its copycat weight loss pill, which it planned to sell for as little as $49, or $100 less than Novo’s approved Wegovy pill. Novo pressed ahead with legal action Monday, asking a federal court to ban Hims from selling any compounded versions of its drugs for good, including injectable versions, and to award damages. The urgency for both companies is clear:

• Drug compounding is allowed during shortages, but Novo’s GLP-1 drugs have been off the FDA shortage list for nearly a year. Yet compound semaglutide treatments have continued to flood the market, and Novo estimates they’re being used by 1.5 million Americans — with its shares down 50% in the last 12 months amid the proliferation of those compounds, the lawsuit could prove a prescription for one of Novo’s biggest business headaches.
• “Hims & Hers has teased the bear, which we believe could lead to increased scrutiny of the company’s entire GLP-1 compounding business, not just the tablet,” wrote SEB analysts in a note on Monday. “Overall, we see this as a positive for Novo.”

Diet Plan: Novo’s Copenhagen-listed shares rose 5.2% on Monday. New York-listed shares in Hims & Hers, meanwhile, shed an Ozempic-like 16% in volume.