The Wellness Brand Betting on ‘Female Viagra’

Hello Cake, a four-year-old startup that sells condoms and lube, is breaking new ground in the sexual wellness category: medication for female sexual dysfunction.

The Los Angeles-based company announced Tuesday a new line of prescription medication that includes a tablet and a topical cream formulated to increase blood flow for vaginal sensitivity. The cream, dubbed O-Cream, contains Sildenafil, the same active ingredient found in Viagra. These new products, which aim to address a low sex drive and enhance sexual arousal among women, come at the heels of the brand’s push into pharmaceuticals last year when it released prescription medication for erectile dysfunction.

Hello Cake joins a growing roster of disruptive healthcare startups including women’s tele-health company Wisp, sexual health brand Maude, and supplements maker Olly to offer sexual dysfunction medication for women. The US wellness market has an estimated value of $480 billion and is expected to expand between 5 to 10 percent annually, according to McKinsey. Women’s health is at the forefront of driving that growth, and sexual health products were the second most-purchased product in 2023 after menstrual care according to a McKinsey survey conducted last August.

“Billions of dollars have been poured into medical treatments for men, however female solutions have largely been underinvested in and overlooked,” said Hello Cake co-founder Mitch Orkis. Only two medicines have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of female sexual dysfunction, he added, including Addyi, a daily pill that costs $742 for a month’s supply, and Vyleesi, an injectable that costs approximately $1,000 per dose. Hello Cake’s offerings both cost $54 for six doses.

Orkis founded Hello Cake with business partner Hunter Morris in the middle of the pandemic with one core mission: get people to have more sex. The company’s launch of prescription medicine was driven by consumer feedback, he said. When Hello Cake launched a consumer survey last year, 60 percent of respondents said their main issue in the bedroom was a mismatch of sex drives.

“We had no intention of launching medication when we started Hello Cake, but we listen to our customers and we give them what they want,” said Orkis. “It also made sense as a business model. There’s really high profit margins and medications that do help fuel growth overall.”

Since launching ED prescription medications last year, a third of Hello Cake revenue has come from prescriptions. It expects pharmaceuticals to make up 50 percent of all revenue in the next few years.

In female-focused medications, investors and founders in the sexual health pharmaceuticals space are hoping to replicate the success of Viagra which generated over $400 million in sales in the first three months.

Hello Cake’s female sexual dysfunction drugs are not regulated by the FDA. This is because the FDA does not approve compounded medication and the company uses a compounded formula with ingredients already approved by the FDA for similar uses, including oxytocin, a hormone associated with stress relief and emotional attachment; l-citrulline, an amino acid that promotes increased blood flow; and tadalafil, an FDA approved drug commonly used to treat male sexual impotence and dysfunction. It connects patients with doctors who prescribe these drugs and pharmacies licensed to alter and mix the ingredients for each individual patient’s needs.

“Because female sexual dysfunction treatments are so new, it will take a tremendous amount of education,” said Orkis. “We’re fortunate enough to be in a position to be able to take the time and have the funds to educate people, and get their sex lives back in sync.”