• Posted February 9, 2026

Hims Pulls Cheaper Wegovy Pill After Federal Scrutiny

Hims & Hers says it will stop selling a low-cost copy of a new weight-loss pill made by Novo Nordisk, after federal officials raised concerns that the product may violate drug laws.

The online health company announced the move Saturday, just two days after introducing the pill.

The decision followed warnings from federal regulators, including a referral to the Justice Department for possible legal violations.

In a social media post, Hims said it pulled the product after “constructive conversations with stakeholders across the industry.”

The withdrawn pill was a knockoff version of a new oral form of Wegovy, a popular weight-loss drug that had previously been available mainly as an injection.

Since the pill’s launch in early January, about 170,000 people have purchased the Wegovy pill.

Novo’s pill costs $149 out of pocket for the first month and $199 for each month after. Hims had announced it would sell its version for $49 the first month and $99 after that, drawing immediate criticism.

That same evening, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agency would “take swift action against companies mass-marketing illegal copycat drugs, claiming they are similar to FDA-approved products.”

The FDA later confirmed that Hims was among the companies reviewed.

Hims is one of the largest sellers of compounded weight-loss drugs, products mixed by pharmacies that are not approved through large clinical trials.

While compounding is sometimes allowed during drug shortages, the FDA ordered companies last year to stop selling compounded versions of popular weight-loss drugs once supplies improved. 

But some folks said Hims went too far by offering a pill version that copied a product protected by patents.

“It’s so far beyond what compounding was meant to solve that it’s hard to understand how Hims thought that this could be a legitimate practice,” Dr. David Kessler, a former FDA commissioner, told The New York Times.

“This was not a copy,” Kessler said. “This was a different technology that was being used.”

He added that there is no public data showing that Hims’ pill works as intended. Novo Nordisk’s pill uses a special absorption method called SNAC, which helps the drug work in pill form.

Without that technology, “it just simply doesn’t work,” Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar said. He warned that customers buying the cheaper pill would be “wasting $49.”

Hims said its pill used a different method, called liposomal technology, to help with absorption. The company did not say whether it had conducted clinical trials to test whether the approach was effective.

Experts also warned that allowing copycat pills could deter drug companies from investing in new treatments.

Compounding was originally meant to help patients during shortages or when custom medicines are needed. But as demand for weight-loss drugs surged, companies like Hims expanded rapidly.

The company reported it was on track to earn $725 million last year from weight-loss products and spent $681 million on marketing in the first nine months of 2025.

Hims has faced these types of regulatory issues before. Last year, the FDA warned the company about misleading marketing, including a Super Bowl ad that promoted weight-loss drugs without clearly listing side effects.

That same scrutiny continued in this year's Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.

In rankings published after last night's game, The New York Times placed the company’s ad last (No. 59) on its list of 2026 Super Bowl commercials.

The Times criticized the spot as “the same formula as last year,” describing it as “a nightmare vision of the current American health-care system followed by a vague and unconvincing pitch for the company’s telehealth services.”

More information

Brown University Health has more on compounded weight loss medications.

SOURCE: The New York Times, Feb. 7, 2026