Novo Nordisk vs. Hims & Hers: The Lawsuit Changing Weight Loss Medicine
Novo Nordisk vs. Hims & Hers: The Lawsuit Changing Weight Loss Medicine
Novo Nordisk just sued Hims & Hers, and while it looks like a corporate legal dispute on the surface, the consequences reach directly into your medicine cabinet. I've been following the GLP-1 space closely as both a physician and a med spa owner: This one really caught my attention.
The Pill That Pushed It Over the Edge
"HIMS did not recreate what Novo Nordisk created. They just made semaglutide into a pill form." — Dr. Kate Dee, Med Spa Confidential
Novo Nordisk spent years and serious money figuring out how to make semaglutide survive your digestive system long enough to actually work. Semaglutide is a peptide, which means your stomach wants to break it down before it can do anything useful. Solving that problem took real science.
When Hims & Hers released their own oral semaglutide almost immediately after Novo Nordisk's launch, they skipped that part. In my opinion, what they released wasn't an equivalent drug. It was a copy that likely didn't work.
Novo Nordisk didn't just ask them to stop selling the pill. They're asking courts to strip Hims & Hers of all compounding rights for semaglutide. That's a much bigger deal than one product recall. In the episode, I walk through exactly what that legal ask means for the compounding market as a whole.
The Shortage Loophole Is Closing
"The compounding pharmacies were scrambling around like, what do we do? We still wanna make money off of these things." — Dr. Kate Dee, Med Spa Confidential
For a couple of years, compounding pharmacies had a legal opening. When Ozempic and Wegovy were on the FDA shortage list, pharmacies could legally produce their own versions. Millions of people used them. Many had real success.
But the shortage ended. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly caught up with demand. That legal window started closing, and some pharmacies didn't want to let go of the revenue. So they found workarounds. Custom doses. Added vitamins. Alternative delivery methods. Anything to argue a patient needed something the manufacturer couldn't provide.
How many of those cases are genuinely justified? That's exactly what courts are now being asked to decide.
Why I've Moved On to Tirzepatide
"In my opinion, it's a much better drug. Fewer side effects, more weight loss. What more could you want?" — Dr. Kate Dee, Med Spa Confidential
I'm on the record as a believer in GLP-1 medications. But not all of them perform equally. Tirzepatide, made by Eli Lilly, has consistently outperformed semaglutide in the patients I've seen and in the clinical data I follow. Fewer side effects, better weight loss outcomes, and a different mechanism that seems to work more efficiently for most people.
There are newer drugs coming too, including retatrutide, which I'm watching closely. The GLP-1 category is not slowing down. But the legal landscape around how you access these drugs is about to look very different.
Before Your Next Prescription
If you're currently using a compounded GLP-1 or thinking about starting one, now is the time to get informed. Ask your provider where your medication comes from, how it's formulated, and what happens to your access if compounding rules change in your state.
Education is how we protect ourselves.
Listen to the full episode of Med Spa Confidential to hear my complete breakdown of this lawsuit, what it means for compounded semaglutide access, and why I think Tirzepatide is worth the conversation with your doctor.
Episode Transcripts:
[00:00:00] Speaker 9: Novo Nortis suing Hims and Hers accusing the telehealth firm of infringing. Its us patent on key ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy
[00:00:07] Dr. Kate Dee: So why is this happening now? So Novo Nordisk just released a brand new pill, an oral form of semaglutide or ozempic. Now, I thought this was gonna be a ho hum because. Oral Semaglutide has been around for a long time, doesn't work that well. The side effects are terrible, but whatever.so Novo Nordisk, we're, we're gonna have a [00:00:30] whole separate conversation about that in our next podcast.
[00:00:34] Dr. Kate Dee: But, so Novo Nordisk issues this new pill, because GLP ones have become so incredibly popular and I think they're, thinking that this pill is gonna help them catch up with. Eli Lilly because Eli Lilly makes Tirzepatide and Tirzepatide has become much more popular than Semaglutide. Why? In my opinion, it's a much better drug, fewer side effects, [00:01:00] more weight loss.
[00:01:00] Dr. Kate Dee: What more could you want? But anyway, so, the moment Novo Nordisk issues this pill, HIMSS comes out with their own version of Oral Semaglutide, their own pill, and, Novo Nordisk really fast slapped them with this lawsuit. I think they were expecting it because I think actually HIMSS withdrew the pill two days before Novo Nordisk hit them with the lawsuit.
[00:01:26] Dr. Kate Dee: Now, the crazy thing about this, this is why this is happening, about the pill, [00:01:30] so Novo Nordisk. Spend a bunch of money researching and creating a pill that would actually work. So semaglutide is AP peptide like any other protein. When you eat it, it gets, broken down in your stomach and absorbed, uh, as protein peptides, get broken down into amino acids and they're good for you.
[00:01:50] Dr. Kate Dee: Amino acids, you know, you need your protein, but in order for a peptide to be absorbed intact. You gotta do something special to protect it so it can [00:02:00] actually get absorbed into your system. So Novo Nordisk Nordisk did all that research, figured it out, made the pill, okay. Did Hys do any of that? No. Did Hys create something that was actually absorbable?
[00:02:12] Dr. Kate Dee: I do not think so. I believe not. This is, basically a cheap knockoff that doesn't work. Again, this is my opinion. I don't know. I've not tried it and it's of course not available. But anyway, so,Novo Nordisk is not only. Asking them to [00:02:30] stop, cease and desist. Don't make that pill. But as far as I can tell, they're asking hims to be stripped of all of its compounding ability of semaglutide, not just the pill.
[00:02:40] Dr. Kate Dee: to quote an article, Novo is asking the court to permanently ban HIMSS from selling compounded versions of its drugs that infringe on companies patents and is seeking to recover damages. Okay, so. That gets us into a much bigger category of what's gonna happen to [00:03:00] compounded GLP ones.so to recap, to go back in history a little bit,semaglutide was originally introduced by
[00:03:07] Dr. Kate Dee: Novo Nordisk and then Eli Lilly came out with Tirzepatide very quickly. These became incredibly popular and there was a shortage. Because of that shortage, the FDA put those two drugs on a shortage list and that opened up the floodgates for compounding pharmacies. To make their own versions of these drugs.
[00:03:27] Dr. Kate Dee: And they did for a couple years. they were going [00:03:30] gangbusters, making compounded semaglutide and eptide and, and those were great. And like millions and millions of people use them, lost weight. They're very happy. Then both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly caught up to the demand. They created extra manufacturing facilities and they, were able to stop the shortage.
[00:03:50] Dr. Kate Dee: So now they can make enough of it. But meanwhile, the compounding pharmacies were scrambling around like, what do we do? We still wanna make money off of these things, and here's [00:04:00] where I think this lawsuit's gonna have a big impact. So the compounding pharmacies went two different ways. There's a set of them like HIMS, and there's another, there are several, and again, this is research off the internet.
[00:04:13] Dr. Kate Dee: So I, I, as of this recording, this is the best I understand it. There are several. Compounding pharmacies that continue to offer its own compounded version. Hims and hers is one. Mochi Health is one. Henry Meds, there's a few others. and [00:04:30] there's a whole other. different category of, online access that they switched to offering the brand name drugs.
[00:04:39] Dr. Kate Dee: So for instance, RO in case you watched the Super Bowl last year, not right, not just now when the, the Seahawks won, but last year there was a big, ad for Ro and I thought, gosh, how are they doing this? This was right after the shortage stopped. But anyway, RO and some other, online. pharmacies like [00:05:00] GoodRx and Walgreens weight management, those shifted over to offering, prescriptions to actual, name brand medications that were offered by Novo Nordisk and, and Lilly.
[00:05:14] Dr. Kate Dee: So we have a, a, a divide here, right? And the thing is, there's this legal loophole, which has been, this is why it hasn't exploded till now because. The pill was such a, I would say, more egregious violation because HIMSS did [00:05:30] not recreate what Novo Nordisk created. They did not make that stabilizing molecule.
[00:05:36] Dr. Kate Dee: They just made semaglutide into a pill form. and so the FDA said, Hey, this isn't tested. This isn't legal. This is bad. So that was so very clearly a violation. Right? So the compounding laws. The way they exist. Okay. It is legal to create a compounded version if a doctor or [00:06:00] a prescribing, person. I think, you know, some states it could be a nurse practitioner.
[00:06:04] Dr. Kate Dee: I think, if a doctor determines that a patient needs a special version of the drug or a special dose that cannot be obtained. From the manufacturer that in that case it would be legal to compound it. So for instance, let's say you start on a dose of, tirzepatide, and then you go up to the next dose.
[00:06:26] Dr. Kate Dee: The next dose is way too much for you, and the first dose was [00:06:30] way too low. You really need one in between and they don't make that. Then it's illegal to prescribe a compounded version. That's a different dose. So what these companies have been arguing is, these patients need a different version, a different dose, or combined with other.
[00:07:32] Dr. Kate Dee: [00:07:00] [00:07:30] drugs or, or vitamins. And so it's an illegal gray zone there, right? How many of those cases, it's really justified how many it's just trying to get around the patent, you know? So I think that this is gonna have far reaching consequences in the whole world of GLP ones. And as you all know, I am on the record as a big believer in these drugs.
[00:07:57] Dr. Kate Dee: Well, especially tirzepatide, that. [00:08:00] I think is way better. Um, but there's new ones that are out now. Retatrutide just came out this,I believe I don't have a date on that, so don't quote me.and there are new ones coming down the pike and it's very exciting because it is going to improve the health of the American population.
[00:08:16] Dr. Kate Dee: And I have absolutely no doubt that these are good drugs. this is a battle over money. Patents. so I'm really anxious to see where this goes. I do think that this, pill that [00:08:30] himss, kind of defiantly created really pushed this whole issue over the edge. So stay tuned. It's very exciting. I certainly think there is gonna be no.
[00:08:41] Dr. Kate Dee: A shortage of access to these drugs. They are going to be expensive. I think that the, the, the drug companies, and there are other drug companies working on GLP ones as well, but right now it's Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. They spend a lot of money. It's true. They spend a lot of money.doing the trials and getting [00:09:00] FDA approval for their drugs.
[00:09:01] Dr. Kate Dee: And that's why these patents exist in order to encourage drug companies to do that research. And the compounding pharmacies really are not allowed to come along and, uh, make a knockoff until, until a generic form, until that patent runs out. So, unfortunately, or fortunately, we live in a world where those are the laws.
[00:09:26] Dr. Kate Dee: And the, those patents have many, many, [00:09:30] many years to go. So, when there is an update on this lawsuit, I will bring it to you and thanks for listening.
