Hims & Hers Shares Sink After Novo Ends Partnership on Copycats

Novo Nordisk A/S scrapped a partnership with Hims & Hers Health Inc. after less than two months, saying the US company is using “deceptive marketing” to sell copycat versions of its obesity blockbuster Wegovy.

Hims, a telehealth platform, wasn’t stepping back enough from its practice of mass marketing off-brand imitations of the weight-loss medicine, Novo executives said.

“The big issue with Hims is that we had an agreement that the mass compounding would stop and unfortunately it didn’t stop,” said Ludovic Helfgott, executive vice president of product and portfolio strategy at Novo, in an interview. “That’s why we ...