Pharmacies are enlisting external PR and marketing support to manage campaigns around their weight loss services, amid soaring demand for weight loss jabs and warnings from industry regulators about “inappropriate” marketing of the drugs.
Oushk Pharmacy, an online provider of weight loss jabs like Mounjaro, has partnered with PR Agency One to “raise its national profile” and “build understanding of weight loss treatments”, the agency said on its website.
While the agency first began working with the online pharmacy earlier this year, it yesterday (September 9) told C+D that they renewed their partnership last month with the introduction of “additional elements” to strengthen “compliance and governance across communications”.
Read more: Mounjaro price hike: GPhC issues weight loss jab ‘marketing’ warning
Meanwhile, Boots Online Doctor also recently teamed up with advertising tech company Quantcast on a campaign to promote its weight loss service through multi-channel targeted advertisements.
Boots Online Doctor offers several weight loss jabs as part of the service, but advertising rules prohibited the company from naming the drugs in its ads or even using the phrase “weight loss” for keyword targeting, it said in a webinar last week (September 3).
Read more: CPPE launches ‘interactive’ weight loss prescribing programme
A Boots Online Doctor representative today told C+D that the campaign ran between April and June this year and stressed that all promotional activities “highlight the full service” on offer.
“All promotional activity for Boots Online Doctor services is compliant with applicable legislation, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) guidance and Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) advertising codes,” they said.
“Regulatory sensitivities”
PR Agency One said that its media strategy for Oushk was designed to ensure “maximum engagement while navigating the regulatory sensitivities” of weight loss medicines.
“Rather than focus on product promotion, we positioned founder Hira Malik as a thought leader,” it added.
And it said that the campaign “highlighted the need for continuous education and advocacy to navigate regulatory scrutiny and public scepticism”.
Read more: ‘Crystal clear’: ASA bans ‘indirect’ weight loss jab advertising
It is illegal to promote prescription-only medicines (POMs) to the public in the UK, making the advertisement or marketing of weight loss jabs like Mounjaro and Wegovy - which can only be obtained with a prescription - against the law.
Oushk revealed in an interview with C+D in April that its orders had grown from “20 a week” to tens of thousands per month its first year - with 98% of those orders estimated to be for weight loss treatments.
Owner and founder Malik also told C+D at the time that she “supposed” the monthly Facebook Live broadcasts about weight loss drugs hosted by the pharmacy were “a marketing thing”, but that they were “never intended to be”.
“Inappropriate marketing”
The campaigns come as the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) last month wrote to pharmacies following reports of “inappropriate marketing messages and advice” relating to weight loss medicines such as Mounjaro and Wegovy.
The regulator said concerns about “inappropriate marketing messages and advice from some pharmacies” regarding drugs used for weight management have grown “especially following the recent announcement of a price increase and reported shortages of Mounjaro”.
Mounjaro manufacturer Eli Lilly sparked chaos across the sector in August when it announced that it would hike the UK list price for the weight loss jab by up to 170% from this month.
Read more: ASA ‘confident’ it can tackle online POM advertising
It follows the ASA publishing nine rulings against providers - including six pharmacies - in July as part of its “ongoing work to tackle illegal ads for weight loss POMs”.
The rulings addressed both social media and search ads for weight loss treatments, making it “crystal clear that all injectable forms of weight loss medication are POMs and can’t be advertised” – even “indirectly”, it said.
Read more: Pharmacies must ‘immediately’ remove weight-loss ads, regulators warn
And in April, the ASA, the MHRA and the GPhC joined forces to warn pharmacies not to advertise weight loss drugs via social media, adding that pharmacies can still break the rules without naming a POM.
The regulators warned against illicit advertising on “all media” within their remit, including both paid-for ads on social media like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and non-paid-for “organic” content on a pharmacy’s own social media channels.
