By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
COPENHAGEN, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Shares in Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk gained 5.2% on Friday, recovering some of the previous two sessions’ steep losses, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pledged to address mass-marketing of unapproved drugs.
The stock plunged nearly 8% on Thursday after telehealth company Hims and Hers Health launched a significantly cheaper $49 compounded version of Novo Nordisk’s FDA-approved Wegovy weight-loss pill.
“FDA will take swift action against companies mass-marketing illegal copycat drugs, claiming they are similar to FDA-approved products,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said on X without naming any companies. “The FDA cannot verify the quality, safety or effectiveness of non-approved drugs.”
Novo rival Eli Lilly, which is awaiting U.S. regulatory decision on its weight-loss pill orforglipron, was also critical of the launch announcement.
“Patients deserve better than untested knockoffs that are sold without clinical evidence that they even work,” a Lilly spokesperson said in an email to Reuters on Thursday before Makary’s public post.
“This is especially true when the company selling those knockoffs — HIMS — is one that FDA has warned has unsanitary manufacturing practices and deceptive advertising.”
A Hims spokesperson said on Thursday the company had not compromised on safety or efficacy and used a technology based on liposomes intended to support absorption, in response to similar criticisms from Novo.
Lilly’s shares, which had ended the prior session down about 8%, rose 3.8% in premarket trading.
Novo warned on Wednesday of unprecedented price pressure on its weight-loss medicines and dropped its full-year forecast, triggering a 17% slump in its share price.
Novo’s shares are near their lowest since Wegovy was introduced in June 2021.
Novo shares were up 5.2% at 295.30 Danish crowns ($46.63)
($1 = 6.3327 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Mrinalika Roy; Editing by David Goodman and Shailesh Kuber)
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