Telehealth platform Hims & Hers announced the addition of Kåre Schultz, a former executive from Novo Nordisk, to its board of directors. Schultz, who has over 25 years of experience at the Danish pharmaceutical company known for diabetes and obesity treatments, is currently the CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical.
In a press release, Schultz expressed enthusiasm about joining Hims & Hers, stating that the company is poised to transform healthcare by using modern tools to enhance access to health solutions. He emphasized the uniqueness of the company in his extensive career in pharmaceuticals.
Following the announcement, Hims & Hers shares rose by 3% in morning trading and have increased by 125% since the start of the year. This update comes shortly after the company began offering a compounded version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in popular weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, produced by Novo Nordisk. Hims & Hers is pricing a month’s supply of the compound at $199, which is significantly lower than the list prices of Ozempic and Wegovy.
The limited availability of these high-demand brand-name medications has prompted various telehealth platforms to utilize a provision in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that allows for the sale of compounded versions of medications that are in shortage. Compounding involves customizing an approved drug by licensed pharmacists or physicians to cater to the specific needs of individual patients.
While the act typically prohibits compounding drugs that are merely copies of commercially available options, the FDA does not consider drugs in shortage as commercially available. Schultz indicated to Bloomberg that the company plans to maintain its offering of compounded semaglutide for the foreseeable future, reassuring that individual patient needs will still create a demand for such personalized prescriptions even after the shortages are resolved.