By Will Feuer

Shares of WW International, also known as WeightWatchers, fell after the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly started a new online service offering telehealth prescriptions and direct home delivery of its new anti-obesity drug Zepbound.

The stock fell 12% to $6.77 in afternoon trading, the shares are up about 55% in the past 12 months.

WW has been pushing into telehealth in a bid to ride the wave of weight-loss drugs. Last year, the company bought telehealth firm Sequence for $106 million.

Analysts at DA Davidson said Lilly's telehealth platform, called LillyDirect, will likely have an advantage over rivals while supply of the weight-loss drugs is scarce. Once production ramps up, though, "the winners and losers in this space will be determined by who can provide the best service," the analysts said.

The new Lilly service also hit shares of other telehealth companies, including Hims & Hers Health, which traded down about 7%. Shares of LifeMD fell about 33%.

Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 04, 2024 16:15 ET (21:15 GMT)

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