Bloomberg Businessweek November 9, 2020
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gainstallodds,theboxofpillsiscute.Ononeside
ofitswinsomecardboardshell,a customtypeface
spellsoutthebrandname,Hims,inalllowercase,givingoff
a vibesomewherebetweenane.e.cummingspoemanda
retrozine.A pamphletthatcomeswiththedrug—Addyi,a
controversialpillthataimstoincreasefemalelibido—tradesin
millennial-empowermentlanguageworthyofGoop.“Future
youthanksyou,”it begins,followedbya stringofrah-rah
sloganslike“balanceis everything”and“you’renotalone.”
Alsoincluded:a stylizedpostcardofa womanjoyfullywater-
ingplantsina pairofclogs.Theminimalistwhitepillbottle
wouldblendinona shelfatanAppleStore.
Hims Inc.is a 3-year-oldtelehealth companyinSan
Francisco.Thisyear,asthepandemiccreateda surgeof
demandforonlinemedicalcare,thestartupbeganprovid-
ingCovid-19testsaswellasprimarycareandmentalhealth
services.Mostly,though,it’sknownforofferinggenericpre-
scriptiondrugstotreaterectiledysfunctionandhairloss.
Customersfilloutanonlinequestionnaire,perhapsexchange
a fewmessageswitha prescribingphysician,thengetthe
medicationshippedtotheirhomeswithouthavingtotake
a separatetriptothedoctor.Forthisservice,Himscharges
a premium.It sellsa month’sworthofa genericversionof
Viagrafor$4per40-milligrampill;atlocalpharmacies,a
larger50mgdosecostsaslittleas$1.70eachwitha coupon.
InHimsadsandonthecompany’swebsite,theprod-
ucts’relevantmedicalinformationisscatteredamong
hyperphalliccacti,eggplantemojis,anda cartoon
SnoopDogg.Aswithothermail-orderbrandsofthepast
decade,suchasCasperandWarbyParker—whichsellmat-
tressesandeyeglasses,respectively—thepackagingiscen-
traltothesalespitch.Inaninterviewconductedpre-Covid,
ChiefExecutiveOfficerAndrewDudumsayshisgoalwasto
builda health-caredeliverysystemwiththeinvitinggloss
ofInstagram.“Whenyouuseit,endorphinsarerushing
throughyourbody,”Dudumsaysofthephoto-sharing site.
“That currently doesn’t happen in the health system, which
is a big problem. It’s an ugly experience.”
Insufficiently grabby marketing of white-label libido pills
wouldn’t top many lists of problems with U.S. health care. The
country’s 330 million citizens pay at least twice the going global
rates for most pharmaceuticals. And for the roughly 30 million
who lack health insurance, costs are usually far higher.
Still, as the pandemic has widened the gaping holes in
America’s fragile health-care system, Hims has capitalized
onprioritiesfurtherupMaslow’shierarchyofneeds.Its
shinyveneer,wellnesslingo,andabilitytoprescribeover
theinternethavehelpedattractmorethana quarter-million
subscribers to its upmarket commodities over the past three
years. It says it’s profitable and on track to bring in $138 mil-
lion in revenue this year, up 66% from 2019. In October, Hims
announced plans to go public by the end of the year through
a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company spun
out of Oaktree Capital Management, a deal that values Hims
at about $1.6 billion. To date, investors have supplied Hims
with more than $200 million in venture funding.
The Oaktree timetable means that Hims will likely be the
first of a slew of similar telemedicine companies to join the
public markets as the need for remote doctoring grows. These
businesses market treatments for everything from ADHD to
aging. Dudum says he’s interested in expanding into such con-
ditions as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, insomnia,
and infertility in the coming years, bringing the company’s
marketing expertise to a much wider range of chronic condi-
tions. “We’re at the beginning of what I believe is 10, 20 years
of growth for this company,” he says, adding that Hims is “on
the forefront of innovation and health care.”
And yet Hims’s real innovation isn’t in destigmatizing
embarrassing medical conditions. It’s in making prescriptions
extremely easy to get—maybe too easy, critics say. Interviews
with six current and former Hims doctors, as well as interviews
with other employees and recordings of company phone calls
shared with Bloomberg Businessweek, suggest that Hims has
pushed the bounds of medical ethics. Each of its 200-odd doc-
tors sees hundreds of patients a week. Often, doctors prescribe
Hims drugs for uses the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
hasn’t approved. (In one ad, which Hims says it’s removed from
its social media campaigns, it pitched a blood-pressure drug,
sometimes prescribed for anxiety, as a way to calm down before
a bigdate.)U.S.doctorsareallowedtoprescribedrugsattheir
discretion,butpharmaceuticalcompaniesaren’tallowedto
marketmedicationsforoff-label uses, and it’s unclear whether
such rules might apply to Hims. Many states also forbid compa-
nies from instructing doctors on how to do their jobs.
The current and former Hims doctors, most of whom spoke
on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, say Hims man-
agers and customer service reps made clear the company saw
them as salespeople and pressured them to keep their num-
bers up. “You’re leasing your license for $100 an hour,” one
says. “I don’t feel like I’m practicing medicine. I’m just serving
the company, selling their products.” Several of the current and
former doctors question whether Hims does enough to screen
out people with conditions that might conflict with the drugs—
or, for that matter, scammers who just want to abuse them.
Himsdeniesrequiringorencouragingdoctorstopre-
scribemedications,andsaysthatit’sfocusedonprovid-
inghigh-quality care and that those standards continue to
improve. “We’re immensely proud of the quality and safety
protocols in place today,” the company said in a statement.The $1.6 billion telehealth startup
is about to go public. Is anybody going
to rein it in?
By Kristen V. Brown and Gerrit De Vynck
Illustration by Khylin Woodrow