Digital health startup Sesame starts offering compounded weight loss shots

(This story is from our new Health Tech newsletter. If you’d like to sign up, just click here.) 

Customers of Sesame, a digital marketplace that connects patients to doctors in person and online, can now get access to compounded GLP-1 weight loss drugs for $249 a month.

Michael Botta

The startup said Wednesday that it’s offering compounded semaglutide to eligible patients as part of its direct-to-consumer weight loss program. It’s pricing the drugs without a retail markup because of how difficult it has been for patients who need weight loss treatment to access it amid supply shortages, Sesame co-founder Michael Botta told Endpoints News in an interview.

There’s been huge demand for GLP-1s over the past couple of years, and some digital health companies, such as Hims and Ro, have begun prescribing the compounded versions, which aren’t approved by the FDA but are permitted while the brand-name drugs are in shortage. Earlier this month, telehealth company Hims bought a compounding pharmacy to bolster its weight loss business.

Botta said he was skeptical of compounded GLP-1s at first, but researched them and eventually partnered with a compounding pharmacy after seeing Sesame patients struggle to get access to brand-name versions. Semaglutide is marketed by Novo Nordisk as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss.

In contrast to Hims, Sesame says it’s providing compounded weight loss drugs only temporarily and won’t continue when the drug shortages end.

“I think anybody who says that they’re going to do that are sort of playing fast and loose with the law and the FDA shortage status and what it actually means,” he said. “If they’re no longer in shortage, I don’t think it’s reasonable to argue that compounding is permitted.”

Pharmaceutical companies invest a lot to research and develop branded drugs, and patent protections are strong, Botta said. He expects that the drugs’ prices will fall as more manufacturers develop competing medications.

Sesame earlier this year partnered with retail giant Costco to offer a weight loss program for Costco members where customers pay $179 for three months of online care. Sesame’s new weight loss program, inclusive of compounded drugs, is separate from the Costco program and not offered to Costco members, Botta said.