Roughly a month after announcing that it would offer GLP-1 injectable weight-loss drugs comparable to the popular drugs Ozempic and Mounjaro, Hims & Hers Health shares are taking a beating after a new report criticized those offerings, saying that they’re being acquired through a “shady supplier.”
That report, published on Thursday by Hunterbrook Media, says that “Hims & Hers sells knockoff GLP-1 weight-loss drugs through a loophole that could end at any time” and that one of its reporters “qualified for GLP-1 knockoffs from Hims after a 4-minute survey—then got a prescription without speaking to a doctor or submitting medical records.” Additionally, Belcher Pharmaceuticals, the company that Hims has partnered with to acquire the GLP-1 drugs, has a spotty history, including two former executives convicted of fraud.
The report landed with a thud and caused Hims’ stock price to drop significantly. After closing Wednesday at around $21.45, shares traded as low as $19.14 on Thursday, a fall of roughly 12%, and remained under $20 on Friday afternoon.
Fast Company reached out to Hims for comment and was told that the company did not have an official statement to share. The company has said in previous blog posts that it’s committed to customer safety. In another, authored by Dr. Patrick Carroll, the company’s chief medical officer, the company describes how “delivering on our vision for safe and affordable access to GLP-1 injections took us over a year because our diligence required vetting dozens of manufacturers across the country with a wide range of expertise and safety standards.”
The primary concern outlined by the Hunterbrook report, at least for customers, is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could close the loophole, allowing compounding pharmacies to sell GLP-1 alternatives to name brands like Ozempic and Wegovy. Further, Hims could potentially find itself in legal trouble if the GLP-1 drugs it’s supplying are found to be harmful or ineffective.
None of this is to say that GLP-1 drugs are necessarily dangerous—or that the compounded versions offered by Hims are—but given the mania surrounding the drugs and their evident ability to help people lose weight, Hunterbrook’s report goes a little deeper into the workarounds that companies are finding to get customers the medications.