Hims & Hers Health, a direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical startup, is now offering injectable GLP-1 weight loss medications at a significantly lower cost compared to well-known brands like Wegovy and Ozempic. The company’s move to sell these drugs has caused its telehealth company shares to surge by over 30% on Monday.

Patients can now access compounded GLP-1 drugs from Hims & Hers starting at just $199 per month, a substantial 85% less expensive than the branded alternatives such as Ozempic and Wegovy. These injectables contain the same active components found in the branded drugs, which are currently facing shortages in some dosages.

Shares of Hims & Hers soared $4.21, or 29%, to $18.79 in Monday afternoon trading.

GLP-1 drugs, short for glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists, play a crucial role in helping individuals feel more satiated and less hungry, thereby supporting their weight loss journey. However, the brand-name versions made by a few pharmaceutical companies often come at a high price, with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy priced at around $1,350 per month, totaling over $16,000 annually without insurance, as reported by GoodRx.

Hims & Hers Health’s may also beat out competitors on another key metric: availability. The startup said its GLP-1 injectable drug, which is made in partnership with a manufacturer of compounded injectable medications, will have “consistent” availability.

The company added that it will also sell brand-name versions of GLP-1 drugs, once supply rebounds. 

“We’ve leveraged our size and scale to secure access to one of the highest-quality supplies of compounded GLP-1 injections available today,” Hims & Hers Health CEO and co-founder Andrew Dudum said in a statement Monday. “We’re passing that access and value along to our customers, who deserve the highest standard of clinical safety and efficacy to meet their goals, and we’re doing it in a safe, affordable way that others can’t deliver.”

Customers will need a prescription from their medical provider, based on what is “medically appropriate and necessary for each patient,” the company said. 

The company is tapping an opportunity to profit by focusing on Americans’ desire to slim down. It already has an existing weight-loss program that is on track to bring in more than $100 million in revenue by 2025, with the program selling oral weight-loss medications for about $79 per month.

Compounded drugs are made by pharmacists to tailor a medication to a patient or if some drugs are in short supply. To be sure, the Food and Drug Administration warns that patients should not use compounded drugs when approved drugs are available to patients.

The agency does not review compounded GLP-1 medications for safety, and said it has received “adverse event reports” from patients who have used compounded semaglutide medications. 

Some consumers have turned to compounded versions of the medications as demand for brand name drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, dubbed “miracle drugs” by users who have slimmed down, soars and strains supply.