Rewrites throughout to clarify with Strive's response, updates shares

By Mariam Sunny

March 3 (Reuters) - Strive Pharmacy said on Tuesday it has no plans to resume sales of a compounded version of Novo Nordisk's NOVOb.CO oral semaglutide, pushing back on an earlier media report that it would reintroduce the GLP-1 pill, which was pulled from the market after U.S. regulators raised concerns.

The Arizona-based compounding pharmacy said its pill technology could be used with several active ingredients, including semaglutide.

"But one thing that does need to be clear is that we are not offering it with semaglutide," Zach Shurtleff, Chief Marketing Officer at Strive told Reuters.

Endpoints News reported earlier in the day that Strive plans to resume sales of a compounded version of Novo's Wegovy pill through other healthcare providers.

Last month, Hims & Hers HIMS.N said it planned to offer a compounded oral semaglutide pill for $49, a version of Novo Nordisk's NOVOb.CO new Wegovy pill launched just a month earlier.

Strive was the compounding pharmacy behind Hims' compounded semaglutide pill.

The move drew pushback from Novo and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which referred Hims to the Department of Justice and threatened to restrict the ingredients that pharmacies can use to make compounded versions.

Separately, the FDA said on Tuesday it had sent warning letters to 30 telehealth companies for making false or misleading claims about compounded GLP-1 products on their websites.

Compounding, in which pharmacies mix ingredients for specialized medicines to address drug shortages or meet specific patient needs, has weighed on sales of Novo's injectable obesity drugs and has drawn increasing scrutiny from manufacturers and regulators.

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk closed down nearly 3% on Tuesday, while those of rival Eli Lilly LLY.N closed over 1% lower.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

((Mariam.ESunny@thomsonreuters.com;))