The news: Hims & Hers will acquire Australian digital health company Eucalyptus for $240 million upfront upon close, with the deal potentially reaching $1.15 billion.
Founded in 2019, Eucalyptus has served about 775,000 customers through its portfolio of consumer health brands—most notably Juniper, a telehealth platform focused on women’s weight management and menopause care.
Why it matters: Hims said the acquisition will help it expand into Australia and Japan, and enhance its presence in the UK, Germany, and Canada. In a similar move, Hims bought European telehealth company Zava last year.
Expanding into new markets through acquisitions of companies with similar business models could help insulate Hims from mounting pressures in the US.
- Hims is facing a patent infringement lawsuit from Novo Nordisk over its alleged mass marketing of compounded semaglutide. Hims could face further regulatory enforcement tied to its compounded weight loss drug business.
- This headwind isn’t going away and poses a major threat to Hims’ ability to sell copycat GLP-1s.
- But scaling its core business into international markets—without creating an entirely new offering—could help offset lost revenue pending the outcome of legal and regulatory action in the US.
Implications for telehealth companies: Hims was likely planning to scale before the recent lawsuit and tighter regulatory scrutiny, but the move signals to other telehealth and consumer health brands that the glory days of chiefly relying on the US compounded GLP-1 market are likely over—and diversification is essential. For some players, that means expanding into countries where generic versions of blockbuster weight loss drugs are coming soon—avoiding patent hurdles—while for others, it means moving beyond GLP-1s to offer other sought-after prescription treatments often overlooked in traditional primary care.
This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.