The UK’s advertising watchdog has banned ads promoting oral weight loss drugs for the first time, it announced today.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the rulings related to ads by Simple Online Pharmacy and Pharmacy Online, which promoted oral GLP-1s “through paid social media ads and website content, including by inviting people to join waiting lists, register their interest and pre-order treatment”.
Read more: GPhC takes action against two major weight loss pharmacies
UK advertising regulations prohibit the promotion of prescription-only medicines (POMs) to the public, meaning it is against the law to the advertise or market prescription-only treatments for weight loss.
The rules also state that medicines must be authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) before they can be advertised to the public.
The ASA said the ad by Simple Online Pharmacy, seen on June 1, promoted an oral GLP-1 medicine before any had been authorised in the UK, and “invited people to ‘join the waitlist’ for a new oral weight management treatment”.
Read more: Nine pharmacies rapped by MHRA over weight loss POM ads
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill, the first oral weight loss drug to be approved in the UK, was greenlit by the medicines regulator as a POM on June 11.
The ASA said it had also banned ads by Pharmacy Online which promoted the Wegovy pill to the public “after it had been licensed as a POM”.
“These included a website pop-up inviting people to ‘pre-order’ the medicine and paid social media ads promoting an oral weight management tablet,” it added.
Read more: Exclusive: GPhC takes first enforcement action over POM ads
The regulator said the rulings are “part of wider action” it is taking to “tackle irresponsible ads for weight loss medicines”.
In June, the ASA, MHRA and General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) published a joint warning to businesses advertising newly licensed weight loss drugs and those that are not yet licensed.
The ASA added that it has also published three other rulings today against MedExpress, Juniper and the Care Pharmacy, over ads that “promoted POMs to the public, even though the medicines weren’t named directly”.
“New challenges”
ASA investigations manager Catherine Drewett said the approval of oral GLP-1s in the UK “represents a significant development in treatment options but also new challenges for regulators”.
“We’ve acted quickly as this market has developed and these first rulings make clear that these oral medicines, like prescription-only injections, cannot be advertised to the public”, she added.
“These are powerful medicines so it’s important that ads don’t encourage people to seek treatment in ways that could put them at risk.”
Regulatory powers
MHRA interim executive director of healthcare, quality and access Julian Beach said the ASA’s rulings highlight “the importance of dealing swiftly with adverts that break the rules”.
“We take advertising that breaches the rules when promoting prescription-only medicines to the public, including weight loss medicines, very seriously,” he added.
“Where breaches occur, we will not hesitate to use the full range of regulatory powers available to secure compliance and protect the public.”
Read more: From a lawyer: Can regulators enforce weight loss drug laws?
C+D approached Simple Online Pharmacy and Pharmacy Online for comment.
It follows C+D revealing last month that the GPhC had taken its first enforcement action over the advertisement of POMs against Pharmacy Online.
The GPhC in August issued the online pharmacy with an improvement notice in what it told C+D “marks an escalation beyond requests to amend or remove” ads.
