(NewsNation) — Telehealth company Hims & Hers is being called out over its Super Bowl ad going after Big Pharma and popular weight-loss injections.
The ad highlights compounded versions of the drugs, which are cheaper than brand-name alternatives like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic.
It also touts a non-FDA-approved Hims & Hers weight-loss drug as the supreme and affordable solution to America’s obesity epidemic and has sparked backlash for perceived fat-shaming and political pandering.
Ozempic, Wegovy call out telehealth company
Critics argue that while Hims & Hers criticizes the nation’s food corporations and health care as greedy and broken, the company itself is part of the problem, leaving out crucial health risks and dangerous side effects.
Dr. Heather Hirsch, a board-certified internist, warns that compounded medications can be risky and lack the rigorous FDA approval process of brand-name drugs.
“When we start compounding things and we remove some of the regulation, it is a little bit of the wild, wild west. Now, we could say 95% of it is going to be safe and effective, but would you want to be the one person who gets the vial that’s not? And there’s been cases of meningitis. There’s been cases of bacterial infections from compounded pharmacies because these medications don’t carry the same approval or rigorous process that FDA-approved medications do,” Hirsch said.
The Hims & Hers version of the weight-loss drug is a compounded drug, essentially a mixture of individual drugs that creates a near copy of the brand versions. It’s currently allowed to skirt FDA regulations and avoid the strict approval processes that big-name drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Monjaro undergo.
Hims & Hers responds
“With every batch of semaglutide that they produce, there’s something called the certificate of analysis CoA, and that CoA does somewhere between 10 and 15 tests,” Dr. Craig Primack, the head of weight management at Hims & Hers said. “To give you confidence that what you’re getting is the compounded drug and it does not have contaminants.”
Hims & Hers stands by its safety protocols, emphasizing patient care and accessibility.
A doctor from the company told NewsNation they defended its compounded drugs, claiming they undergo testing for safe concentration levels and viruses and bacteria.
Hims & Hers said it is following the law, cares about its patients, and believes its drug is helping Americans with “both access and affordability.”
In response, Ozempic and Wegovy have published full-page ads questioning the safety of the compounded drugs.
