Hims surges after Novo Nordisk reportedly ends feud, agrees to sell its weight-loss drugs on the platform
Hims & Hers is soaring in premarket trading, up around 54% as of 6 a.m. ET, after reports that the telehealth company will announce a new partnership with Novo Nordisk to sell the latter’s weight-loss drugs on its platform again.
The potential deal, which was reported by Bloomberg citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter, would mark yet another turn in the pair’s tumultuous business relationship, after a previous partnership imploded in just under two months last year and Novo Nordisk moved to sue Hims just last month over alleged patent infringements around semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy.
Novo’s weight-loss drugs have lost ground in the ultracompetitive space of late, as combined sales of rival Eli Lilly’s drugs, like Mounjaro and Zepbound, continue to outweigh Novo’s figures for Wegovy and Ozempic, and as copycat offerings from companies like Hims also take market share (at least for now).
A Novo spokesperson said on Friday that the company is “always in conversation with companies that can help improve patient access to FDA-approved medicines,” per Bloomberg, while Michael Cherny, an analyst at Leerink Partners, described the rumored deal as “both a surprise and an unabashed positive for Hims’ stock.”