National Consumers League Commends FDA for Swift Action Against Hims & Hers
Washington, DC – You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all the time. On Friday, February 6, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would stop the telehealth platform Hims & Hers from marketing a compounded version of the first FDA-approved GLP-1 weight-loss pill. On Saturday, Hims & Hers said it was withdrawing the product from the market, and the FDA did not pursue enforcement action.
“Consumers deserve safe, proven medications — not copycat drugs dressed up by slick marketing. The FDA’s decisive action sends an important message: patient safety is not optional, and no company is above the law,” says Nancy Glick, Director of Food, Nutrition, and Obesity at the National Consumers League.
For too long, compounders like Hims & Hers have been battling “big pharma” by selling inexpensive products that the FDA has repeatedly warned are “risky for patients.” These compounded drugs are untested, not FDA approved, and can cause dosing errors, severe side effects, and, in some cases, death. But without strong FDA oversight and aggressive enforcement by state boards of pharmacy, these warnings have been drowned out by multi-million-dollar marketing campaigns, including glitzy Super Bowl ads, that promote a misleading narrative: GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are virtually the same as FDA-approved versions, only cheaper and more convenient.
Hims & Hers’ gambit to market a knockoff of the new GLP-1 pill was the bridge too far. The FDA-approved drug is made with a special nanotechnology that cannot be copied by compounders– not even close. That quickly became apparent, and the audacity of Hims & Hers’ actions could not be ignored.
The National Consumers League applauds the FDA for its swift action against Hims & Hers and hopes this marks the start of a robust FDA effort to rein in an exploitative market where sellers routinely push boundaries, believing regulators are not watching.
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About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
