By Mackenzie Tatananni
Hims & Hers Health is losing its edge as major drugmakers move to reclaim market share the telehealth provider gained during a shortage in GLP-1 medications.
Eli Lilly was the latest to receive a concession on Thursday, as CEO Andrew Dudum said Hims would allow providers on its platform to prescribe scripts filled by independent pharmacies, namely LillyDirect.
With the announcement, Hims now carries a "full range of FDA-approved GLP-1s," the company said. The latest offering is part of a subscription-based model bundling clinical support with nutrition guidance.
Investors can interpret the news in two ways, according to Leerink Partners analyst Michael Cherny. On the one hand, Hims is continuing to expand its platform, "serving as an intermediary to create more options, " Cherny said.
At the same time, "it is hard to tell what role Hims is playing here beyond being the front door to patients accessing Lilly products," the analyst continued. He noted the announcement follows the company's step away from large-scale compounding and its decision to yield to Novo Nordisk, Lilly's rival in GLP-1 drugs.
Hims enjoyed a surge in popularity in late 2024 amid a shortage of GLP-1 medications, as enormous demand created an opportunity to pull business away from major drugmakers that were struggling to keep up. With the shortage resolved, Hims is being forced to make concessions to companies that initially refused to sell their products on its platform.
In early March, Novo Nordisk agreed to drop a patent infringement lawsuit against Hims in exchange for the telehealth provider's commitment to sell branded Ozempic and Wegovy through its online pharmacy.
With Hims exiting GLP-1 compounding, its role in the ecosystem is becoming less clear. Dudum, to his credit, attempted to justify the agreement with Lilly by likening Hims to Netflix in its "early days."
" Netflix wasn't just renting DVDs," Dudum wrote. "It was changing consumer behavior by ruthlessly prioritizing choice and inventing new pathways to the things people wanted the most."
For now, investors seemed to buy the narrative. Hims stock advanced 0.4% on Thursday as the S&P 500 fell slightly. Lilly traded flat.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2026 10:43 ET (14:43 GMT)
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