Hims offered a $49 weight loss pill, then yanked it. Now Novo Nordisk is suing.
Telehealth provider Hims & Hers is facing new scrutiny on Monday after Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company, filed a lawsuit against it for a compounded version of GLP-1 pills. The lawsuit alleges Hims & Hers mass-marketed unapproved compounded versions of Novo’s Wegovy and Ozempic drugs.
The new lawsuit comes after Hims & Hers abruptly withdrew its $49 version of the weight loss pill, two days after announcing it was coming to the market. The alternative option came under scrutiny from federal regulators and Novo, which called it “illegal mass compounding.”
“This is a complete sham, and it has been a sham since the shortage ended,” John Kuckelman, Novo’s group general counsel of global legal, intellectual property and security, told CNBC.
He added, “The fact is that their medicines are untested, and they’re putting patients at risk.”
Hims & Hers responds
Hims issued a statement Monday following the lawsuit, calling the legal action “a blatant attack by a Danish company on millions of Americans who rely on compounded medications for access to personalized care.”
They said the lawsuit is another case of Big Pharma “weaponizing the US judicial system to limit consumer choice.“
Hims argued their drug was legal because it’s an adjusted dosage, therefore it’s not a copy of Novo’s product. They planned to sell the product for $49 in the first month, roughly $100 less than Novo’s approved Wegovy pill.
The company still sells copycat versions of Novo’s injectable Wegovy and Ozempic drugs.
Compounded drugs
Companies like Novo and Eli Lilly have recently struggled with other providers promoting and selling compounded drugs, and Eli Lilly has filed its own lawsuits against several telehealth and digital health companies.
The compounding practice is allowed through a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) loophole that allows companies to sell knockoff drugs when the authentic drug is in short supply. In the case of Novo Nordisk, however, its drugs came off the FDA shortage list last year, while compounded drugs remain on the market.
CNBC reports that Novo estimates as many as 1.5 million Americans are still using compounded obesity drugs, rather than authentic ones like the ones Novo offers.
Kuckelman added that with the lawsuit, Novo isn’t aiming to stop all compounding practices, saying, “I would just say we do want an end to mass compounding, to unlawful mass compounding.”
On the opposite side of things, Arizona-based Strive Compounding Pharmacy filed a lawsuit last month, alleging Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are engaging in a “coordinated effort to suppress competition.”
Strive filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, saying the companies’ efforts cut off “an essential channel between patients with prescriptions for personalized medicines and the pharmacies that could fill those prescriptions.”
Other investigations
Novo Nordisk is not the only group going after Hims & Hers for their compounded drugs. On Friday, the FDA announced it would take legal action against Hims for the pill, including restricting access to ingredients.
The Department of Health and Human Services also asked the Justice Department to investigate the company for potentially violating federal law in its efforts to produce a compounded version of GLP-1 drugs.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
