Advocacy group accuses Novo Nordisk of violating FDA's 'fair balance' advertising rules
A nonprofit advocacy group has filed a complaint with the FDA accusing Novo Nordisk of lining up promotional material for its weight loss drug Wegovy that masqueraded as a CBS news segment.
The complaint filed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on Thursday takes issue with a 13-minute segment of a 60 Minutes episode that aired on Jan. 1, featuring two Boston-area doctors who’ve consulted for Novo Nordisk.
While CBS cited Novo Nordisk as an advertiser on the broadcast, the Physicians Committee argues that the segment violates the FDA’s “fair balance” requirements for advertisements, and urges regulators to require that the segment be withdrawn and that Novo issue corrective advertising.
“Although it was included during a regularly scheduled episode of CBS’s popular series 60 Minutes, the Wegovy promotion meets the definition of an advertisement,” the complaint states. “No medical experts who were not paid by Novo Nordisk appeared, nor did the promotion discuss alternative products or approaches to address obesity.”
The group also takes issue with words used to describe the drug during the segment, including “safe,” “fabulous,” and “robust.”
Wegovy was approved in June 2021 as a once-weekly injection for chronic weight management in adults. It contains the same medication, semaglutide, as the company’s type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic, just at a higher dose. In a follow-up episode, one of the doctors returns to explain how Wegovy and Ozempic work.
Novo Nordisk has denied the allegations. The company said in an email to Endpoints News:
Novo Nordisk did not provide any payment or sponsorship to CBS 60 Minutes for their reporting on obesity as part of a news segment that aired on January 1, 2023, and we did not control any of the content or have any role in identifying or selecting the doctors and patients featured in the news segment.
Novo Nordisk had halted Wegovy promotions back in March on the heels of supply issues but said in November that it planned a “broad commercial re-launch” in the new year.
Last month, the company reported a shortage of Ozempic caused by “incredible demand coupled with overall global supply constraints.” While Novo declined to confirm whether the shortages are due to off-label use of Ozempic for weight loss, it did acknowledge that some providers may be prescribing the drug for such use. The issue is expected to be resolved by early 2023, according to a recently updated report by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.