Novo Nordisk is ending its newly started relationship with a telehealth service, Hims & Hers, to provide direct access to a popular GLP-1 weight loss drug, Wegovy, claiming it has engaged in deceptive promotion and sales of illegitimate, knockoff versions of Wegovy that puts patient safety at risk.

The FDA had allowed compounded versions of the GLP-1 drugs to be sold through telehealth services due to demand far outstripping supply. In late April, the FDA ended the emergency rules that allowed the knock-off versions after finding that Novo Nordisk was fully able to meet current and projected nationwide demand.

Compounding pharmacies were required to stop making the alternate versions of the GLP-1 drugs in May, but companies are sidestepping the FDA by offering bespoke copies of the weight-loss compounds tirzepatide and semaglutide by incorporating additives like vitamin B12 into the drug, making it different enough so that is can be compounded legally.

The compounded versions cost consumers considerably less than the brand-name GLP-1 drugs.

Novo Nordisk said it had been working with telehealth companies to help transition patients from the compounded versions to official, FDA-approved Wegovy. The company claims Hims & Hers has continued to sell compounded drugs under the false guise of “personalization.”

“Novo Nordisk is firm on our position and protecting patients living with obesity. When patients are prescribed semaglutide treatments by their licensed healthcare professional or a telehealth provider, they are entitled to receive authentic, FDA-approved and regulated Wegovy,” the executive vice president of Novo Nordsik, Dave Moore, says. “We will work with telehealth companies to provide direct access to Wegovy that share our commitment to patient safety – and when companies engage in illegal sham compounding that jeopardizes the health of Americans, we will continue to take action.”

Novo Nordisk says an investigation carried out by the company found the “semaglutide” active pharmaceutical ingredients that are in the knock-off drugs sold by telehealth companies are manufactured in China and many of them had drug quality assurance violations.

Hims & Hers disputes Novo Nordisk position and claims the drug-maker is misleading the public. “Novo Nordisk’s commercial team increasingly pressured us to control clinical standards and steer patients to Wegovy regardless of whether it was clinically best for patients,” CEO Andrew Dudum says. “We refuse to be strong-armed by any pharmaceutical company’s anticompetitive demands that infringe on the independent decision making of providers and limit patient choice.”

Although Hims & Hers will lose direct access to Wegovy, Mr. Dudum claims the company will still offer it, though it was unclear if it would be able to offer it at the discounted prices it had under the agreement with Novo Nordisk.

Hims & Hers’s stock price plummeted on news of the partnership ending. Shares were down more than 30 percent in Monday afternoon trading.