The logo of pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk is displayed in front of its offices in Bagsvaerd, Copenhagen, Denmark, February 4, 2026.<\/p>\n
Tom Little | Reuters<\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk<\/a> on Monday said it is suing online telehealth provider Hims & Hers<\/a> for mass marketing cheaper, unapproved copies<\/a> of the drugmaker’s new Wegovy obesity pill and injections in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n Novo is asking the court to permanently ban Hims from selling compounded versions of its drugs that infringe on the company’s patents and is seeking to recover damages.<\/p>\n “This is a complete sham, and it has been a sham since the shortage ended,” said John Kuckelman, Novo’s group general counsel of global legal, intellectual property and security, in an interview. <\/p>\n “The fact is that their medicines are untested, and they’re putting patients at risk,” he added, referring to how the safety, efficacy and quality of compounded medicines are not verified by U.S. regulators. <\/p>\n The move escalates the feud<\/a> between Novo and Hims, which said on Saturday it will stop offering its new copycat obesity pill <\/a>after facing scrutiny from federal regulators and legal threats from the Danish drugmaker. Hims had planned to offer the oral drug for as little as $49 for the first month, roughly $100 less than Novo’s approved Wegovy pill.\u00a0<\/p>\n Novo Nordisk’s Copenhagen-listed shares were up more than 5% while Hims’ NYSE-listed stock was down 21% in premarket as of 8 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n The lawsuit comes as Novo works to reclaim market share in the booming obesity drug market and fend off competition from both Eli Lilly<\/a> and a wave of compounded alternatives. Those copycats have proliferated under a regulatory loophole that allows companies like Hims to sell compounded versions of patent-protected drugs when branded treatments are in short supply.<\/p>\n Semaglutide \u2014 the active ingredient in Novo’s pill and its blockbuster injections \u2014 is no longer in shortage in the U.S., thanks to the company’s efforts to ramp up manufacturing capacity. There are no shortages reported for the Wegovy pill, which has had an explosive launch since it entered the U.S. market in early January.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even so, Novo estimated in January that as many as 1.5 million Americans are using compounded GLP-1 drugs.<\/p>\n Hims has said its compounded pill and other GLP-1 products contain semaglutide, despite the ingredient being protected by U.S. patents through 2032. Hims has said that its versions are legal because they are “personalized” in dosage.<\/p>\n But Novo said it does not directly or indirectly sell semaglutide for copycats, and accused Hims of engaging in illegal mass compounding.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I would just say we do want an end to to mass compounding, to unlawful mass compounding,” Kuckelman said, noting that Novo is not trying to end all compounding practices. <\/p>\n He said compounding has to be based on legitimate grounds, “as opposed to you producing mass stocks of what you’re calling a personalized medicine, which is really just a dosage variation.” <\/p>\n Compounded drugs can be produced on a case-by-case basis when a doctor determines it is medically necessary for a patient, such as when they can’t swallow a pill or are allergic to a specific ingredient in a branded drug.\u00a0<\/p>\n More CNBC health coverage<\/p>\n