Novo Nordisk accused of violating FDA’s Fair Balance advertising policy

pharmafile | January 24, 2023 | News story | Sales and Marketing  

Advocacy group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has accused Novo Nordisk of breaching FDA’s Fair Balance policy after Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes news segment about obesity.

 

The complaint purports that although CBS listed Novo Nordisk as an advertiser, the actual content of the segment was framed like an advertisement instead of news ‒ violating FDA’s Fair Balance standards: “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. 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 highlighted the use of the words “safe”, “fabulous” and “robust” to describe Wegovy.

 

Novo Nordisk has denied these allegations, stating 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.”

 

Wegovy was approved in June 2021 and is administered as a once-weekly injection to aid in weight management in adults. Wegovy contains semaglutide, the same drug used in Novo Nordisk’s type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic.

 

James Spargo


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