Novo Nordisk deals with lawsuits over Wegovy; stoic silence on Hims and Hers
The Danish multinational pharma has filed over 130 cases in 40 U.S. states
In the legal battle of Novo Nordisk against dozens of U.S. pharmacies and companies selling cheaper copies of its weight-loss drug Wegovy, surprisingly, the telehealth company Hims & Hers has remained absent.
The high-profile firm continues to sell compounded versions of Wegovy at lower prices, testing the limits of federal restrictions on such copies and contributing to weaker sales growth for Novo.
In June, Novo accused Hims of violating its intellectual property and endangering patients. It scrapped a brief arrangement with the firm to sell Wegovy directly to consumers, raising litigation expectations.
Recently, a spokesperson for Novo stated that the Danish drugmaker was not ruling out further legal action after announcing new lawsuits against 14 small pharmacies, telehealth providers and weight-loss clinics. Novo has filed over 130 cases in 40 U.S. states.
However, the spokesperson for Hims defended the personalization of medicines as the future of healthcare. He stated that patients and providers used their platform to make clinical decisions.
Commenting on the matter, Emily Field, a Barclays analyst, remarked, “Investors are happy to see Novo getting more aggressive on the litigation front, but remain puzzled as to why they haven’t confirmed that they are filing or have filed litigation against Hims.”
Meanwhile, legal experts claimed that Novo’s expanding litigation against smaller telehealth players could add pressure on a company like Hims to negotiate a settlement or help the drugmaker to think of strategies.
In addition to trademark infringement, Novo has accused pharmacies of steering people toward compounded Wegovy by interfering with the relationship between clinicians and patients.
Josh Gerben, an intellectual property attorney, said that since Novo and Hims had a prior business relationship, it would complicate matters.
Robin Feldman, a professor at UC Law San Francisco, who has written books on the pharmaceutical industry and its intellectual property battles, expressed, “Business happens in the shadow of the law. Sometimes companies file a case against smaller players as a shot across the bow, a way to rattle the larger players.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set a 22 May deadline for compounding pharmacies to cease mass-producing copies of Wegovy, a practice allowed only when a drug is in shortage.
Hims claimed it still offers personalized versions of Wegovy, in doses not manufactured by Novo, which better suit individual patient needs. It argued that individualized dosing remained legal under compounding rules.
As Michael Nedelcovych, a TD Cowen analyst, stated, “Compounding laws are vague about allowing different interpretations, and the interpretation that matters, that of the courts, has not been provided.”
Similarly, Gaston Kroub, a partner at patent litigation firm Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov, said that Novo’s cases against smaller compounders could shape how courts interpreted those boundaries.
He added, “This is an untested set of affairs. If you want to train for a heavyweight championship fight, you start sparring with lighter opponents.”