Why Hims & Hers Health Stock Was in Dire Need of This Eli Lilly Agreement

Hims & Hers will be offering Eli Lilly GLP-1s through its platform, the company said Friday. (Courtesy Hims & Hers)

Key Points

Hims & Hers Health shares rise after the company announces an agreement with Eli Lilly.
The agreement allows patients to access Eli Lilly’s weight-loss medications, Zepbound and Foundayo, through the Hims & Hers platform.
Hims & Hers has never offered compounded copies of Eli Lilly’s GLP-1s and has committed not to do so in the future.

Shares of Hims & Hers Health needed a shot in the arm and they received one on Friday.

Shares have fallen 26% this year, and the stock has retreated 37% since closing at $38.28 on July 6. It has closed below the key 200-day moving average in each of the past four trading sessions.

On Friday, however, Hims stock rose 6.8% to $25.70 in premarket trading Friday and it was due to an agreement with Eli Lilly , the world’s largest pharmaceutical company.

The two companies said Friday they have agreed to expand access to Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 weight loss medications, Zepbound and Foundayo, through Hims & Hers consumer platform.

The agreement brings together Lilly’s obesity medicines and Hims & Hers’ consumer platform in which patients will be able to complete a consultation, receive a prescription if their provider determines it is appropriate, and have Food and Drug Administration-approved Lilly treatments shipped directly to their home.

Self-pay pricing starts at $149 per month for Foundayo and $299 per month for Zepbound, according to the companies.

“Millions of people turn to Hims & Hers for their care, and through this agreement, those patients now have a simple, more direct way to get FDA-approved Lilly medicine at an affordable price if prescribed,” Eli Lilly executive Ilya Yuffa said in the media release Friday.

Importantly for Lilly, Hims & Hers has never offered access to compounded copies of Lilly’s GLP-1s and has committed not to do so in the future, the company said Friday.

Hims & Hers has been retooling its core weight-loss business this year and shifting away from sales of compounded GLP-1s to branded versions of the medications.

Pharmaceutical companies has spent heavily heavily on weight loss medications and Eli Lilly has emerged as one if not the all-out leader in the space. Along with Lilly, there also is Novo Nordisk with its Wegovy weight-loss pill. Lilly’s oral Foundayo, which gained approval in April, still lags behind Novo’s Wegovy in prescription volume.

Shares of Eli Lilly declined 1% to $1,352.40 before the opening bell on Friday.

Write to Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com

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