Raphael Stevens

Hims & Hers Health announced plans to expand to Canada in 2026.
Hims will offer generic copies of semaglutide drugs in Canada as Novo Nordisk loses patent protection.
Novo Nordisk will lose its patent protection on its branded semaglutide drugs Ozempic and Wegovy in Canada after not paying a maintenance fee in 2019.

The Hers website arranged on a laptop in New York, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Hims & Hers Health announced Wednesday it will offer generic semaglutide in Canada as Novo Nordisk’s patent on its branded drugs Ozempic and Wegovy is set to expire in January.
“Canada is a major opportunity to show what affordable, high-quality weight loss care can look like,” said Andrew Dudum, co-founder and CEO of Hims & Hers, in a press release. “As generic semaglutide becomes available for the first time globally, we’re focused on making it truly accessible, by combining affordability with trusted, personalized care at scale.” 

Hims, a telehealth platform, joins a growing list of drugmakers that are looking to cash in on Novo Nordisk’s lapsed patent on its GLP-1s. It’s the first time the company will be operating in Canada.
Generics are essentially copies of a brand-name drug, like Ozempic or Wegovy, that deliver the same efficacy, follow the same safety standards and are allowed once a patent expires. These drugs are different from compounded versions of medications, which are personalized treatments that are changed in form or provided in different dosing levels than commercially available doses.
The Canadian semaglutide market in 2024 generated revenue of $1.18 billion and is expected to reach $4.03 billion by 2035, according to market research firm Grand View Research.
There is still no generic version of semaglutide on the market that’s been approved by the Canadian health agency, but the approval process has begun for some in the industry.
Sandoz, a global leader in generic medicine manufacturing, told Science in early June that it filed for approval of a generic version of semaglutide with Canada’s regulatory agency Health Canada. Hims did not say in its announcement if it has started a similar application for review, but did note it’s working with “an approved partner” to ensure it’s following all local laws and regulations.

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Some in the industry have raised concerns about Novo letting its patent lapse, and it comes as Wegovy has lost ground to Eli Lilly’s rival treatment, Zepbound, in the U.S. But a spokesperson for the company told CNBC that all intellectual property decisions are “carefully considered,” adding that “periods of exclusivity for pharmaceutical products end as part of their normal life cycle and generic treatments may become available over time.”
This announcement by Hims follows the closing of the company’s recent acquisition of European telehealth platform Zava, which expands the health platform in Europe to Ireland, France and Germany.
This also comes after Novo Nordisk ended its collaboration with Hims & Hers, citing concerns about the company’s sales and promotion of cheaper knockoffs of its weight loss drug Wegovy.

How Novo lost its Canadian patent

According to documents filed with the Canadian Patent Database, Novo held a patent for semaglutide, but the last time the company paid the annual maintenance fee was in 2018.
Novo Nordisk’s lawyers requested a refund for the paid 2017 maintenance fee of $250 Canadian dollars ($185) because the company wanted more time to see if it wanted to pay it, according to letters included in the documents.
Two years later, the office sent a letter saying the fee, which now included a late charge bringing the total to CA$450, was not received by the prescribed due date.
Novo Nordisk had a one-year grace period to pay, but never did, and so its patent lapsed in Canada. It lapsed in 2020 when the fee was not received, but it doesn’t expire until January.
Canadian authorities confirmed in their correspondence that “once a patent has lapsed it cannot be revived.”
“Making affordable, holistic obesity treatment accessible has the potential to help strengthen the local healthcare system and unlock the potential for millions of Canadians to live healthier, more fulfilling lives,” said David Meinertz, general manager of the international business at Hims & Hers.

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The Transportation Security Administration will no longer require travelers to take their shoes off at airport checkpoints.
The rule has been in place for nearly 20 years.
The TSA briefed airline industry members about the change earlier Tuesday.

Traveler wait in a long security line at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
Allen J. Schaben | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

The Transportation Security Administration will let many travelers leave their shoes on at U.S. airport checkpoints, ending a roughly 20-year-old rule, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday.
The change will be immediate and nationwide, Noem said at a press conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

“We want to improve this travel experience, while maintaining safety standards,” Noem said.
The TSA briefed industry members about the change earlier Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.
The agency screened an average of nearly 2.5 million people a day last year.

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Most passengers had been required to remove their shoes at U.S. airport security checkpoints since 2006. The TSA at the time said it required shoe removal because of “intelligence pointing to a continuing threat.”
That came after Richard Reid, who became known as the “shoe bomber,” tried and failed to ignite explosive material in his shoe on a Paris to Miami flight in December 2001.

Travelers enrolled in the TSA’s PreCheck program can already leave their shoes on and keep their laptops and similar electronics in their bags when going through airport checkpoints.
Noem said Tuesday that airport screening technology has improved in recent years.
“We took a hard look at how TSA does its business, how it does its screening processes, and what we do to make people safe, but also provide some hospitality as well,” she said.

An air traveler places his shoes in a bin before passing through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security check at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on February 20, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.
Robyn Beck | Afp | Getty Images

She also pointed to upcoming events like the World Cup next year, noting that the agency is expecting an influx of travelers.
Airlines for America, which represents the largest U.S. carriers, including American, Delta, United and others cheered the decision.
“This policy change will go a long way in facilitating smooth, seamless and secure travel for passengers and is welcome news to the millions of people who fly every day,” it said in a statement. “Making security decisions that are informed by risk assessments and based on leveraging advanced technologies is a commonsense approach to policy change.” More

President Donald Trump threatened to impose up to 200% tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. “very soon.” 
But he suggested that those levies would not go into effect immediately, saying he will “give people about a year, year and a half.”
Those planned tariffs would deal a long-awaited blow to pharmaceutical companies, many of which have pushed back and warned that the levies could drive up costs, deter investments in the U.S. and disrupt the drug supply chain, ultimately putting patients at risk.

US President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.
Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose up to 200% tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. “very soon.” 
“They’re going to be tariffs at very high rate, like 200%,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting. 

But he suggested that those levies would not go into effect immediately, saying he will “give people about a year, year and a half.”
“We’ll give them a certain period of time to get their act together,” Trump said, apparently referring to drugmakers bringing back manufacturing into the U.S.
Details on pharmaceutical tariffs “will come at the end of the month,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC after the Cabinet meeting.
“With pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, those studies are being completed at the end of the month, and so the president will then set his policies then, and I’m going to let him wait to decide how he’s going to do it,” Lutnick said.
The president has repeatedly threatened and then changed course on tariff proposals, so there’s no guarantee he will set pharmaceutical tariffs at the 200% rate. Pharmaceutical stocks were largely unchanged following Trump’s comments.

In a note on Tuesday, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger said he believes the announcement is positive for the industry “because tariffs will not be implemented immediately…and it is unclear if the administration will follow through in the future.”
It is Trump’s most significant comment on pharmaceutical-specific tariffs since April, when his administration initiated a so-called Section 232 investigation on those products. That legal authority allows the Secretary of Commerce to investigate the impact of imports on national security.
Those planned tariffs would deal a long-awaited blow to pharmaceutical companies, many of which have pushed back and warned that the levies could drive up costs, deter investments in the U.S. and disrupt the drug supply chain, putting patients at risk. The industry is already navigating the fallout from Trump’s drug pricing policies, which drugmakers argue threaten both their bottom lines and their capacity to invest in research and development.
Trump has said tariffs will incentivize drug companies to move manufacturing operations to the U.S. Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and others are already putting more money into the U.S. after domestic drug manufacturing has shrunk dramatically over the last few decades. 
PhRMA, the industry’s largest lobbying group in the U.S., reiterated a previous statement that pushes back on pharmaceutical tariffs.
“Every dollar spent on tariffs is a dollar that cannot be invested in American manufacturing or the development of future treatments and cures for patients,” Alex Schriver, senior vice president of public affairs for PhRMA, said in the statement.
“The industry shares President Trump’s goal of revitalizing American manufacturing and has recently announced hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investment, but placing tariffs on medicines would be counterproductive to these efforts,” he continued. “Medicines have historically been exempt from tariffs because they can increase costs and lead to shortages.” More

Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner has been named the new chief executive of The Hershey Company.
Tanner will replace Michele Buck, who is retiring after almost 20 years at Hershey, including almost eight as CEO.
Tanner’s move to Hershey marks his return to the consumer packaged goods space.

Kirk Tanner, then CEO of North American beverages for PepsiCo Inc., speaks during the Bloomberg Power Players Summit in Miami, Florida, on Jan. 31, 2020.
Marco Bello | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner has been named the new chief executive of The Hershey Company, effective August 18.
Tanner will replace Michele Buck, who is retiring after almost 20 years at Hershey, including almost eight as CEO.

Tanner joined Wendy’s in 2024 after more than 30 years at PepsiCo, including leading the company’s North American beverages unit. His move to Hershey marks a return to the consumer packaged goods space.
“Kirk is a proven, high-impact leader in the food and beverage industry with a great combination of customer and consumer passion, commercial acumen and operational scale,” said Mary Kay Haben, director and chair of Hershey’s CEO search committee, in a press release Tuesday. “His deep experience in snacks, beverages, M&A and innovation—combined with public company CEO and board roles—makes him well suited to lead Hershey into the future.”
Buck originally announced her plans to retire from Hershey at the beginning of the year. She will remain as an advisor to Hershey until the end of the year.
Wendy’s has named Chief Financial Officer Ken Cook as its interim CEO when Tanner steps down on July 18. Cook has been CFO since 2024 and held senior roles at UPS before that.
The Wendy’s board has launched a search for a permanent replacement.

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