Hello Cake, a Calabasas-based sexual health company, has launched a prescription medication to treat female sexual dysfunction.
Hello Cake began in 2018 as a direct-to-consumer brand that developed a cult following for creating situation-specific lubricants and vibrators. The company raised $16 million and quickly made its way to retailers like CVS. Now, it’s turning its head to prescription medication.
It’s not alone. The wellness industry, dominated by consumer packaged goods and over-the-counter medications, is slowly inching its way into pharmaceuticals. After 60 years, weight loss program WeightWatchers announced in 2023 that it would acquire Weekend Health (then called Sequence), a platform that prescribes drugs meant to treat diabetes and obesity. Noom, another weight management platform, rolled out Noom Med to offer prescription drugs as well.
Libido Lift Rx, Hello Cake’s oral medication, aims to tackle symptoms of female sexual dysfunction. To receive a prescription, patients see a doctor through Hello Cake, and the company provides six doses for $54.
There isn’t a women-focused sexual dysfunction drug on the market that comes close to the revenue success of Viagra. Pfizer’s iconic little blue diamond pill was considered a blockbuster drug when it debuted in 1998, and even when its patent expired and gave way to generics in 2017, Pfizer was able to maintain control of the erectile dysfunction market between 2018 and 2019.
After rejecting it twice, the Food and Drug Administration finally approved flibanserin in 2015, which was the first drug touted as “female Viagra.”
The approval process for the drug was complicated and contentious, in part because the medication aimed to target the medically nebulous issue of female sexual desire, as opposed to simply promoting the mechanical act of blood flow to a body part.
“When you think about the amount of time, attention, and money being poured into treating erectile dysfunction for men while FSD has largely gone overlooked, it’s not right,” Mitchell Orkis, Hello Cake’s cofounder, said in a statement.
Libido Lift Rx is not available in a handful of states including California due to restrictions on shipping compounded drugs into those areas.
