Hims & Hers stock fell 7% after Eli Lilly launched single-dose vials of its popular weight loss drug
Hims & Hers (HIMS) stock fell 7% on Tuesday and remained relatively Wednesday morning.
Eli Lilly (LLY) just launched a new single-dose vial option for the lowest doses of Zepbound, giving people an alternative to the usual auto-injector pen the drug comes in. The move is meant to help keep up with skyrocketing demand for the treatment. The lowered prices also make the drug more competitive against cheaper, off-brand weight loss alternatives offered by online pharmacies and telehealth platforms like Hims & Hers.
A four-week supply of the 2.5 mg Zepbound single-dose vials will cost $399, while a four-week supply of the 5 mg dose will cost $549. That’s about half the cost of Zepbound’s regular list price of $1,060.
In May, Hims & Hers started selling a compounded version of semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, which are produced by Eli Lilly’s rival Novo Nordisk (NVO).
A month’s supply of the compounded weight loss medication starts at $199 — hundreds of dollars cheaper than Ozempic’s nearly $1,000 list price and Wegovy’s $1,349 price tag.
And in July, Hims & Hers announced that it has added Kåre Schultz, a longtime Novo Nordisk executive, to its board of directors. Schultz told Bloomberg at the time that the company has a “long future” in selling compounded semaglutide.
Compounding is the process of customizing an approved drug by a state-licensed pharmacist or physician to meet the specific needs of an individual patient.
Typically, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act prohibits compounding drugs that are just copies of commercially available medications. However, drugs that are in shortage are not considered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be commercially available. Wegovy and Zepbound are currently on the FDA’s drug shortage database.
When asked if pharmacies will still be able to make compounded semaglutide after the shortages end, Schulz said he wasn’t worried because there would still be cases where patients need individualized prescriptions.
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