Hims & Hers, a telehealth platform targeting millennials, announced on Monday that Kåre Schultz, a veteran executive from Novo Nordisk, has joined its board of directors.
Schultz has over 25 years of experience at Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company well-known for its diabetes and obesity treatments, where he held multiple positions including president and COO. Currently, he serves as the CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical.
In a press release, Schultz expressed enthusiasm for Hims & Hers, stating, “This is the first company in my long career in the pharmaceutical industry that is effectively leveraging modern tools to disrupt traditional healthcare access and improve how people obtain necessary health solutions.” He conveyed excitement about contributing to the company’s vision.
Following the announcement, Hims & Hers shares rose by 3% during morning trading, marking a 125% increase since the start of the year.
This announcement arrives shortly after Hims & Hers began offering a compounded version of semaglutide, the key ingredient in popular diabetes and weight loss medications Ozempic and Wegovy, both produced by Novo Nordisk. Hims & Hers is pricing a month’s supply of the medication at $199, significantly lower than Ozempic’s list price of nearly $1,000 and Wegovy’s $1,349.
Due to the limited availability of these expensive brand-name drugs, several telehealth companies have utilized a provision in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which allows the sale of compounded versions of medications deemed to be in shortage. Compounding involves tailoring an approved drug to meet an individual patient’s specific needs, typically conducted by a state-licensed pharmacist or physician.
While the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act generally prohibits compounding drugs that are merely replicas of commercially available ones, medications that are in short supply do not fall under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) definition of commercially available.
In a conversation with Bloomberg on Monday, Schultz indicated that Hims & Hers anticipates a “long future” in selling compounded semaglutide. When asked about the future of compounded semaglutide availability post-shortages, Schultz expressed confidence that patient-specific needs would continue to necessitate individualized prescriptions.