Another online pharmacy bypasses the FDA to offer cut-rate weight loss drugs
Hims and Hers is the latest pharmacy to offer GLP-1 drugs from compounding pharmacies. | Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge
Hims & Hers Health, one of the online pharmacies that got its start prescribing dick pills, is now offering knockoff versions of GLP-1 weight loss drugs. Hims & Hers says it will offer drugs that mimic Ozempic and Wegovy, the active ingredient of which is semaglutide.
The copycat versions are made by compounding pharmacies. The formulations aren’t the same as the FDA-approved versions of the drug and haven’t been directly evaluated by the FDA, either. But they’re cheaper than the real thing: $199 a month, compared to the branded version, which can cost more than $1,000 a month without insurance.
Compounding pharmacies can make knockoff versions of branded drugs when they are in shortage, as the GLP-1 drugs — prescribed for diabetes and…
