Novo Nordisk ends Hims & Hers partnership over compounded Wegovy copies

Novo Nordisk told the public on June 23, 2025 that it has walked away from its arrangement with Hims & Hers Health, Inc. The telehealth company loses the direct pipeline it had to branded Wegovy through NovoCare Pharmacy, Novo's cash-pay home delivery service ^[1][2].

The two companies announced the tie-up in April. It paired a Hims & Hers membership with access to Wegovy from $599 a month and included round-the-clock care, nutrition help and clinical support ^[3]. Novo's own account says the arrangement lasted a little over a month before the drugmaker cut it off ^[1].

Novo's stated reason centers on compounding. In its release, the Danish company said its partner had "failed to adhere to the law which prohibits mass sales of compounded drugs under the false guise of 'personalization'" and was spreading marketing it called deceptive, putting patient safety at risk ^[1][2]. Wegovy's active ingredient is semaglutide, the same molecule in Novo's Ozempic and Rybelsus ^[4].

"When patients are prescribed semaglutide treatments by their licensed healthcare professional or a telehealth provider, they are entitled to receive authentic, FDA-approved and regulated Wegovy," said Dave Moore, Novo's executive vice president of US operations ^[1]. He told CNBC that Novo expected compounding for personalization to taper off, and that when it did not, the company had to make a choice "on behalf of patients" ^[2]. Moore also said Novo owes nothing to end the deal, which ran through a third party that manages the drugmaker's direct-to-consumer pharmacy ^[2].

Hims & Hers pushed back the same day. CEO Andrew Dudum, writing on X, said his company was "disappointed to see Novo Nordisk management misleading the public" and described weeks of pressure from Novo's commercial team to "steer patients to Wegovy regardless of whether it was clinically best for patients" ^[2][3][4]. "We refuse to be strong-armed by any pharmaceutical company's anticompetitive demands that infringe on the independent decision making of providers and limit patient choice," he wrote ^[3][4]. A company post on LinkedIn called the termination an effort by "a pharmaceutical giant to protect its own interests by challenging lawful, personalized compounded care" ^[3]. Novo declined to respond to Dudum's remarks, Reuters reported ^[4].

Investors reacted sharply. CNBC put the Hims & Hers close at more than 34% lower, with Novo off more than 5%; Reuters described the Hims decline as more than 30% and listed 32% in its summary, with Novo down 5.3% ^[2][4].

Novo's move followed regulatory steps that narrowed compounding. FDA had allowed pharmacies to make copies while Wegovy was scarce, then set a May 22 cutoff: larger outsourcing facilities had until that date, while smaller pharmacies were told to stop at once ^[3][4]. Novo's release says FDA resolved the Wegovy shortage in late April, while Reuters and MobiHealthNews put the shortage declaration in February ^[1][3][4]. Reuters also reported that a federal judge upheld FDA's removal of semaglutide from the shortage list in the days before the breakup ^[4]. Hims & Hers has kept selling "personalized" compounded semaglutide starting at about $165 a month, arguing that is allowed when a patient needs a dose the company does not offer ^[4].

Novo also said it investigated and traced the "semaglutide" ingredient in knock-off products sold by telehealth companies and compounding pharmacies to overseas suppliers in China, and pointed to a Brookings Institution report finding that FDA had never authorized those suppliers' manufacturing processes and that many were never inspected or had quality-assurance violations ^[1][2][3].

Why it matters for patients

For people getting branded Wegovy through Hims & Hers, this closes one route to the medicine rather than removing the drug from the market. Hims & Hers says it will keep offering Wegovy, along with other treatments, so its providers can meet individual patient needs ^[2][4]. Novo says its agreements with other telehealth companies, including LifeMD and Ro, are untouched and that those partners made good-faith efforts to move patients onto branded Wegovy ^[4].

Patients on compounded semaglutide face a different set of questions. Compounded drugs do not carry FDA approval ^[2]. Novo portrays the copies as risky because of where their ingredients come from; Hims & Hers rejects that framing as an attack on lawful compounding ^[1][3]. Novo has not said what will happen to Hims & Hers patients now receiving compounded semaglutide, and no FDA enforcement action against the company has been announced.

What happens next

Moore said Novo plans to pursue legal action and work with FDA to curb illegal compounding, without offering a schedule ^[2]. Citi analyst Daniel Grosslight wrote that the split raises Hims & Hers' legal exposure "substantially" ^[2]. Truist's Jailendra Singh said the loss could damage the company's long-term credibility and its compounding business; Hims & Hers had tied the partnership to a goal of $6.5 billion in revenue by 2030 ^[4].