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Thursday, 12 March 2026 |
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| A question I’m often asked as a journalist is, "What stories are you following?" |
| For a very long time, but especially this past month, I’ve been a broken record: Hims. |
| After Hims & Hers made up with Novo Nordisk this week, agreeing to sell branded Wegovy and limit compounding in exchange for Novo dropping its lawsuit, it was time to take a step back. |
| If you tuned into our Post-Hoc Live discussion Tuesday (watch it back here!), you heard how long we’ve been following companies like Hims. I’ve had a good reason for that. Online prescribers, particularly those that get people treatments for conditions like hair loss and erectile dysfunction, proved there was interest from consumers in paying
directly for their healthcare without using insurance. When they started offering cheaper, compounded versions of weight-loss medications, the market exploded. |
| Shelby and Ngai pulled together their notes from conversations over the last month and wrote an analysis breaking down just how much has changed in the pharmaceutical market because of it. |
| There’s a lot to debate about what comes next, the futures of companies like Hims and Novo, and what regulators do about the widespread compounding happening right now. |
| But what’s not up for debate is that the pharmaceutical market for GLP-1s is fundamentally different, because of the competition from compounders prescribing their products. The pharma companies themselves have set lower cash prices and, as Shelby and Ngai write, turned foes into friends. In a market that hasn't historically changed much, it's one of the biggest disruptions I’ve seen in a decade covering the industry. |
| Check out the full piece here. |
| - Lydia |
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How GLP-1 weight loss compounders reshaped the drug industry
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Hims won — for now.
Since 2022, telehealth companies and compounding pharmacies have brought a new type of competition for drugmakers. Pharma giants, long protected by patents and market exclusivity, suddenly found themselves undercut on price by compounded GLP-1 drugs.
The compounders helped create an unprecedented craze for the drugs and potentially set a precedent for wrangling future expensive brand-name medicines away from the traditional supply channels. |
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Quote of the week
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“We're essentially swarming the problem of how to fix healthcare in this country.” |
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Doctronic co-CEO Matt Pavelle, on the rise of startups looking to provide AI-only medical care |
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Worldwide made. Thanks for reading.
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