Novo Nordisk A/S NVO, the Danish pharmaceutical big behind weight-loss medicine Wegovy and Saxenda, is dealing with scrutiny over its sponsorship offers with U.Ok. pharmacies.
Critics argue these preparations reveal troubling conflicts of curiosity and spotlight gaps in regulating prescription drug promoting.
Additionally Learn: Novo Nordisk Pushes FDA To Exclude Compounding For Its Early-Technology Diabetes Drug
Between 2021 and 2023, Novo Nordisk offered substantial funding to main pharmacy chains similar to Boots and Lloyds in addition to smaller on-line clinics.
The sponsorships, valued within the a whole bunch of hundreds of kilos, funded promoting campaigns, pharmacist coaching and the creation of affected person sources.
In return, pharmacies equipped Novo Nordisk with detailed studies on prescription numbers, promoting efficiency and affected person demographics.
Whereas Novo Nordisk insists these sponsorships adhered to trade requirements, critics have raised issues concerning the moral implications of such monetary ties.
The corporate’s sponsorship practices additionally drew regulatory scrutiny.
In 2022, Novo Nordisk signed a $119,000 (95,000 kilos) cope with Boots to fund coaching and promoting for its weight-loss companies.
Extra offers with different pharmacies offered free provides and advertising supplies.
Nevertheless, in October 2024, the UK’s Prescription Medicines Code of Observe Authority (PMCPA) dominated that these preparations violated trade codes, citing an absence of partnership independence and insufficient safeguards in opposition to incentivizing prescriptions.
Additional points emerged when Novo Nordisk funded on-line clinics such because the Slimming Clinic and WebMed pharmacy. Each have been later discovered to have illegally promoted prescription-only weight-loss medicine, together with Wegovy and Saxenda, on social media.
Posts by the clinics featured photographs of weight-loss injection pens and direct references to the medicine, violating UK promoting guidelines.
Novo Nordisk denied information of the clinics’ promotional practices and emphasised that its sponsorships have been supposed for affected person training, not advertising.
A 2023 investigation by The Guardian found that almost 50 corporations have been reprimanded over related breaches between January 2023 and September 2024.
Within the new 12 months, the U.Ok.’s Medicines and Healthcare Merchandise Regulatory Company (MHRA) urged the general public to keep away from buying weight-loss medicines with out a prescription from unauthorized sources like magnificence salons, social media platforms or unverified web sites.
Value Motion: NVO inventory is down 1.01% at $84.17 through the premarket session ultimately verify Tuesday.
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