Hims & Hers Stock Drops as FDA Says Ozempic and Wegovy No Longer in Short Supply
Key Takeaways
Shares of Hims & Hers Health (
HIMS
) plunged Friday after the
Food & Drug Administration
said a shortage of the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s (
LLY
) Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s (
NVO
) Ozempic has been resolved.
Semaglutide injections, which have become a popular treatment option for weight loss as well as Type 2 diabetes, have been considered to be in a shortage since 2022.
This could affect Hims & Hers, which makes compounded versions of
weight-loss drugs
by combining the key ingredient in the patented version with other drugs. This is legal thanks to an FDA rule known as 503B, which allows companies to
mass-produce
compounded drugs when the originals are hard to obtain.
The FDA said it does not intend to take action against 503B drug compounders for 90 days, or until May 22, “to avoid unnecessary disruption to patient treatment.”
Hims Says It Will Monitor for Future Shortages
Hims & Hers
Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Dudum said Friday in a post on X that the company "will continue to offer access to personalized treatments as allowed by law," adding that the company is "closely monitoring potential future shortages."
This comes after the FDA said in October that Eli Lilly weight-loss treatments Mounjaro and
Zepbound
(which use the active ingredient tirzepatide, rather than semaglutide) were
no longer
on its list of drugs in short supply.
Hims’ stock fell more than 23% by Friday afternoon, wiping out gains earlier this week after the company announced plans to roll out
at-home blood testing
over the next year. Shares of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk shares on Friday gained less than 1% and more than 5%, respectively.