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Novo Nordisk has threatened legal action against Hims & Hers after the US telehealth group launched a cheaper version of the Danish drugmaker\u2019s Wegovy pill, as competition heats up in the increasingly crowded obesity treatment market.<\/p>\n
Hims & Hers said on Thursday that its new offering will retail at $49 per month and contains semaglutide, the same active ingredient as Wegovy. Novo began selling its Wegovy pill in the US<\/a> last month for $149 a month at the lowest dose after it became the first oral version of a weight-loss drug<\/a> to be approved by regulators worldwide.<\/p>\n Novo<\/a> responded angrily to the move, calling it \u201cillegal mass compounding\u201d that it claimed posed a \u201csignificant risk to patient safety\u201d and saying that it will take legal and regulatory action to protect patients and its patent.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is another example of Hims & Hers\u2019 historic behaviour of duping the American public with knock-off GLP-1 products, and the FDA has previously warned them about their deceptive advertising of GLP-1 knock-offs.\u201d<\/p>\n Hims & Hers is offering a \u201ccompounded\u201d version of a weight-loss pill. Compounding involves the production of custom-made drugs using the same active ingredients that replicate the effect of branded medicines. Compounded drugs are not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.<\/p>\n Novo ended a tie-up with Hims & Hers last year<\/a> after accusing it of deceptively marketing copycat versions of its blockbuster Wegovy weight-loss drug under the guise of \u201cpersonalisation\u201d, a claim that the telehealth group rejected at the time.<\/p>\n Compounded versions of obesity and diabetes drugs became popular in 2022 after the drugs exploded in popularity and pharma groups Novo and Eli Lilly struggled to meet demand. The FDA declared an official shortage of the drugs, allowing pharmacies to make versions of Novo\u2019s Wegovy and Ozempic and Lilly\u2019s Zepbound. The FDA has since said the shortages of the drugs were over.<\/p>\n