Novo Nordisk A/S plans to sell its weight-loss drugs on Hims & Hers Health Inc.'s platform, according to a person familiar with the matter, ending a highly public feud between the two companies that spiraled into a legal battle last month.
Novo and Hims plan to announce a new partnership as soon as Monday, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The two companies had a similar agreement last year, but Novo abruptly scrapped it after Hims refused to stop marketing and selling copycat medications.
The partnership is a surprising move for Novo, which sued Hims in February for launching a copycat version of its new Wegovy weight-loss pill. The Danish drugmaker accused Hims of breaching the US patents on the ingredient behind its best-selling medications Ozempic and Wegovy. At the time, John Kuckelman, general counsel at Novo, said Hims' announcement was “egregious.”
Shares of Hims surged 40% in after-hours trading. Its stock had plummeted 52% this year as of Friday's close. Meanwhile Novo's American depositary receipts rose 2.1% postmarket.
“There is no other way to describe the Hims news as both a surprise and an unabashed positive for Hims' stock,” Leerink Partners analyst Michael Cherny said in a note to clients.
A spokesperson for Novo said Friday that “we are always in conversation with companies that can help improve patient access to FDA-approved medicines for people living with chronic diseases. These talks happen on an ongoing basis.”
Hims didn't immediately return messages for comment after normal business hours.
Novo's new pill was supposed to help it gain an edge in the highly competitive obesity market, where it's been losing share to rival Eli Lilly & Co. and firms like Hims that sell copycat drugs. Novo's willingness to partner with the telehealth platform now is a sign the drugmaker is under mounting pressure to regain its footing.
Its partnerships with other telehealth companies, including Ro and Weight Watchers, have been less contentious. Ro, for example, was able to offer Novo's Wegovy pill on its platform as soon as it became available in January.
“We get the rationale for Novo here,” Cherny said. “The company has been looking to add as many partners as it can to drive market reach, including other digital pharmacies and CVS.”
Hims and other telehealth companies pounced on the opportunity to sell lower-cost copies of Lilly's and Novo's weight-loss shots during widespread supply shortages in recent years. Those shortages have since ended, meaning companies were supposed to stop selling copies of the shots. They've gotten around that by tweaking dosages or adding ingredients so that their products are considered different enough from the brand-name drugs.
The US Food and Drug Administration recently signaled plans to crack down on the proliferation of copycat, or compounded, weight-loss drugs.
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