TLDR
- Hims & Hers (HIMS) stock rose 6.8% to $25.70 in premarket trading Friday.
- Eli Lilly (LLY) agreed to sell Zepbound and Foundayo directly on the Hims & Hers platform.
- Self-pay pricing starts at $149 a month for Foundayo and $299 a month for Zepbound.
- Hims & Hers agreed not to sell compounded versions of Lilly’s obesity drugs.
- HIMS is down 26% this year and has closed below its 200-day moving average four sessions in a row.
Hims & Hers Health (HIMS) stock jumped 6.8% to $25.70 in premarket trading Friday. The lift came from a new deal with Eli Lilly (LLY).
Hims & Hers Health, Inc., HIMS
Under the agreement, Hims & Hers will sell Lilly’s weight-loss drugs Zepbound and Foundayo directly on its platform. Reuters put the premarket gain at more than 7%.
Until now, patients who wanted Lilly’s drugs had to leave the site. They were sent to LillyDirect, Lilly’s own cash-pay platform, which is one extra stop nobody loves.
Lilly stock slipped 1% to $1,352.40 before the open. The drugmaker carries a $1.2 trillion market value.
Fewer Clicks Between Patient and Prescription
Patients can now finish a consultation on Hims & Hers. If a provider decides it is appropriate, they get a prescription.
The FDA-approved Lilly drugs then ship to the patient’s home.
Self-pay pricing starts at $149 a month for Foundayo. Zepbound starts at $299 a month, matching LillyDirect prices.
Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA, said getting Lilly medicine on the platform was “not fully straightforward” until now. He added that any friction point raises the chance a customer gives up.
Yuffa also said Hims & Hers agreed not to sell compounded versions or knockoffs of Lilly’s drugs. The company says it has never offered them.
Hims & Hers has spent this year moving from compounded GLP-1s to branded ones. Novo Nordisk (NVO) has sold Wegovy and Ozempic there since March.
Novo’s Wegovy pill starts at $149 a month on the platform. Its Wegovy injector pen starts at $199.
A Stock Still Looking for Its Footing
Hims & Hers stock is down 26% this year. It has fallen 37% since closing at $38.28 on July 6.
It has also closed below its 200-day moving average in each of the last four sessions. Friday’s jump came after that rough run.
Leerink Partners analyst Michael Cherny called the deal “a clear positive”. He said it completes Hims & Hers’ access to the two leading GLP-1 drugmakers.
Lilly says 40% to 45% of Zepbound sales go through self-pay channels. Analysts have said Hims & Hers could get a lift next year if employers drop weight-loss drug coverage.
Lilly’s Foundayo pill launched in April, about three months after Novo’s Wegovy pill. Novo has sold millions more obesity pills in the US so far.
Last week, Lilly raised its full-year revenue forecast by $5 billion. The company pointed to booming demand for its injectable weight-loss drugs.
