Discounted Ozempic Could Deflate ETF Optimism Around Hims & Hers

Hims & Hers Health Inc (NYSE:HIMS) investors can’t catch a break. Less than two months since Novo Nordisk AS (NYSE:NVO) terminated its Wegovy partnership with the telehealth company abruptly, the pharma giant is again in the news, this time partnering with GoodRx Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:GDRX) to provide discounted access to Ozempic and Wegovy.

Hims & Hers is falling out of favor with investors. Check out its real-time prices now.

Stocks of Hims & Hers declined once more last week, weighed down by concerns about increasing competition in one of its most promising sectors: telehealth-based weight-loss treatments.

Why This Matters For ETFs

Hims & Hers has been one of the popular growth themes in thematic funds focusing on telemedicine and healthcare innovation. ETFs such as the Global X HealthTech ETF (HEAL) and the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (BATS:ARKG) have all had holdings in HIMS, with a historical range of 5–6%. Although ARKG has recently dropped HIMS from its portfolio, it was once bullish on the stock, highlighting the fact that when a stock this concentrated falters, the ETFs take notice.

Although ARKG’s stake in HIMS is now nil, the company attracts growth investors, most of whom view the digital health explosion as somehow linked to the genomics revolution. Sentiment-driven losses within HIMS can trigger wider rotations out of thematic ETFs when the story breaks.

HEAL focuses on healthcare and tech companies at the intersection, like AI drug discovery, medical analytics, connected consumer care. HIMS is carried as a top exposure with 4.2% weightage. GoodRx’s aggressive GLP-1 pricing nibbles at the edges of HIMS’s bundled-care play, and the implications are more about business models based on convenience to the patient rather than price. HEAL shareholders might feel shortchanged by the same disruptive tailwind.

The Competitive Narrative Under The Microscope

The GoodRx-Novo Nordisk arrangement hurts HIMS from a partnership perspective while undermining HIMS’ pricing ability at its core. HIMS established its GLP-1 product on the basis of convenience and combined care, but now GoodRx is providing the very same blockbuster medications at a significant discount through a platform that millions of people already trust for medication cost savings. That’s a direct threat to HIMS’ growth narrative.

For investors in ETFs, this is a real-time stress test of just how durable such holdings in these funds are when the disruptors themselves get disrupted. ETFs with high-concentration bets on stocks like HIMS make them more vulnerable to such competitive shock. ARKG is smaller and more diversified, but it still faces the larger risk: when thematic funds rely on narrative-driven growth, momentum can be erased by headlines.

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