Lilly to sell obesity drugs directly on Hims & Hers site

FILE PHOTO: An injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, is displayed in New York

Nov 6 (Reuters) - Eli Lilly said on Friday it struck a deal to allow Hims & Hers Health to sell obesity drugs Zepbound and Foundayo directly ‌on its platform, sending the telehealth company's shares up more than 7% in premarket ‌trading.

The Lilly drugs were previously available to patients on Hims & Hers only if they left the site and went to ​Lilly's own cash-pay platform LillyDirect.

The move puts Lilly on equal footing with Danish rival Novo Nordisk, which has been selling its Wegovy and Ozempic through Hims & Hers since March, after previously suing the telehealth company for offering compounded versions of its medications.

Calling the Lilly partnership "a clear positive", Leerink Partners analyst ‌Michael Cherny said the deal completes ⁠Hims & Hers' process to secure access to the two leading GLP-1 drugmakers and should help provide broader access to branded weight-loss treatments following the company's ⁠exit from mass compounding.

Lilly leads the obesity drug market with its highly effective injectable Zepbound, even as Novo has sold millions more obesity pills in the US. Lilly launched its oral Foundayo in April, ​around three ​months after Novo's Wegovy pill came to market.

"The ease ​and ability for someone on the ‌Hims & Hers platform today to get Lilly medicine is not fully straightforward," said Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA.

He said any friction point for consumers increases the chance of abandonment.

As part of the deal, Yuffa said Hims & Hers has agreed to not sell any compounded versions or knockoffs of Lilly's obesity medications.

Self-pay pricing starts at $149 per month for Lilly's obesity pill Foundayo and $299 per month ‌for injectable GLP-1 Zepbound, matching the prices available through ​LillyDirect.

Novo's drugs on the platform start at $149 per month ​for the Wegovy pill and $199 per month ​for the Wegovy injector pen.

Some 40% to 45% of Zepbound sales are ‌through self-pay channels, according to Lilly.

Analysts have said ​that Hims & Hers may ​get a boost next year from employers dropping coverage of weight-loss drugs to rein in costs.

Last week, Lilly raised its full-year revenue forecast by $5 billion on booming demand for ​its injectable weight-loss drugs. The company's ‌lead in the enormous and expanding obesity drug market has propelled Lilly to ​a $1.2 trillion market valuation.

(Reporting by Michael Erman in New Jersey and Padmanabhan Ananthan in ​Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Devika Syamnath)