Hims & Hers Stock Explodes After a Shocking Backroom Deal With Novo Nordisk

When HIMS began to tick up in aftermarket trading late on a Friday in early March, it was the first indication that something had changed. After that, it continued. Message boards had begun to light up by the time the ticker reached a 39% gain. It was leaked to Bloomberg by someone. By Monday morning, the news was official: Novo Nordisk, the massive Danish pharmaceutical company that had been attempting to legally dismantle Hims & Hers for the past year, had quietly consented to sell its most valuable medications, Wegovy and Ozempic, through the very platform that it had just sued.

On paper, it was an announcement of a partnership. In reality, it resembled surrender. Less than a month prior, Hims’ $49 compounded oral semaglutide, a replica of Novo’s recently authorized weight-loss medication, had prompted Novo to file a patent infringement lawsuit. Under pressure, Hims pulled the product. The stock collapsed. Anyone following the story of the weight-loss medication thought the telehealth company had finally reached a point where it was unable to negotiate. Next, this. A complete reversal, the lawsuit was dropped, and branded medications were once again available on Hims’ platform. Wall Street hardly had time to change course.

The value of Hims shares had dropped by about two-thirds from its peak in February of last year. That cannot be reversed by a 40% pop. It opens a door that appeared to be permanently closed. Reading the terms of the deal gives the impression that Novo wasn’t being friendly. Eli Lilly’s Zepbound has been steadily gaining market share, and Lilly’s next medication, retatrutide, is anticipated to launch this year with the potential to surpass both semaglutide and tirzepatide. This is the obvious reason why Novo Nordisk shares have dropped roughly 50% over the last 12 months. There is existential pressure there. When a business can’t afford to lose another quarter of ground, it might partner with the distribution platform you were suing.

It’s difficult to ignore how abruptly the story changed. A year ago, Hims was capitalizing on investors’ wagers of unending GLP-1 demand by providing compounded semaglutide to clients irritated by Wegovy shortages. Subsequently, the FDA declared the shortage to be over, Novo ended a previous collaboration in June 2025 due to “safety concerns” regarding compounding procedures, and the entire growth narrative fell apart. Nearly overnight, the stock dropped from $64 to the low $40s. Following that, there were months of regulatory clouds, an SEC investigation, and a growing sense that Hims had reached its peak, which was expressed in numerous earnings calls.

And yet, here we are. Investors appear to think the business has found something more resilient than the profit margin of a drug reseller. More bluntly than most analysts would put it, one Reddit commenter on r/TheRaceTo10Million stated that Hims is becoming an essential platform and that the fact that a competitor large enough to sue them can’t really afford to cut them off says something. It’s the kind of moat that appears out of nowhere. It’s a different matter entirely whether that endures the Lilly wave.

Many issues remain unresolved. The SEC’s investigation is still ongoing. Compounding laws continue to be a complex legal issue. Within eighteen months, Lilly’s pipeline could completely change the obesity market. Hims is loud, profitable, and abruptly back in the game, but it’s also been here before, riding a wave that turned against it. Andrew Dudum gets to run the same victory lap from the previous spring for the time being. The wager is on how long this one lasts.