Telehealth platform Hims & Hers has announced the appointment of Kåre Schultz, a veteran executive from Novo Nordisk, to its board of directors. Schultz, who has over 25 years of experience at Novo Nordisk, including roles as president and chief operating officer, is currently the CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical.
In a statement, Schultz expressed his enthusiasm for Hims & Hers, noting the company’s potential to transform the healthcare landscape. He highlighted the innovative tools the company employs to enhance access to essential health solutions.
Following the announcement, Hims & Hers shares rose by 3% in early trading and have increased by 125% since the start of the year. This news arrives shortly after the company announced it would offer a compounded version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in popular diabetes and weight loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy, both manufactured by Novo Nordisk.
Hims & Hers is pricing its compounded semaglutide at $199 for a month’s supply, significantly lower than the nearly $1,000 list price for Ozempic and $1,349 for Wegovy. The shortage of these expensive brand-name drugs has led several telehealth companies to utilize a provision in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that permits the sale of compounded versions of medications that are in short supply.
The act typically restricts the compounding of drugs that merely replicate commercially available medications; however, drugs deemed in shortage by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are exempt from this rule. Schultz indicated a promising future for the company’s offerings of compounded semaglutide and expressed confidence that individualized prescriptions will remain in demand even after the shortages are resolved.