Wegovy: Regulators removing ‘around 100’ social media POM ads every day
A joint regulator “enforcement operation” is cracking down on swathes of businesses using social media to promote prescription-only medicines (POMs), while the government has raised concerns over online pharmacies prescribing weight loss drugs.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is “removing around 100 posts” advertising POMs on social media “a day”, the regulator has said.
A spokesperson for the advertising regulator yesterday (September 3) told C+D that it is “proactively finding and removing ads for POMs, including for weight loss products, using [its] artificial intelligence (AI) based active ad monitoring system”.
The technology “monitors thousands of online ads a day and determines which are likely to be ads and which of those ads are likely breaking the rules…particularly on social media where we see the most issues,” the ASA spokesperson said.
They added that the operation focuses “on monitoring ads in non-paid space such as on Instagram where [the regulator is] doing a lot of work…taking action against ads for POMS – including weight loss treatments such as Ozempic”.
“While not every one is a weight loss specific ad, [the ASA is] removing around 100 posts a day for these type of products,” they told C+D.
“If advertisers are unwilling to comply, we may refer them to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), who can issue further sanctions,” they added.
“We are concerned”
The stats come as health minister Karin Smyth this week said that the “joint enforcement operation”, which has been in place between the ASA and MHRA since 2021, “is in place…to take targeted action against weight loss treatment providers who use social media to promote POMs”.
She made the comment in response to a question from Labour MP for Bolton South and Walkden Yasmin Qureshi about “what assessment” the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) had made “of the adequacy of the regulation of sales of weight loss injections by online pharmacies”.
Symth replied that “online prescribing provides a valuable route for patient access” when used “appropriately”.
But she said that the DH is “concerned…about some online prescribing, including the prescribing of weight loss medicines by online businesses”.
She stressed that the drugs are “licensed for use in the UK by the MHRA and should be prescribed according to the terms of the MHRA’s marketing authorisation”.
“Prescribing outside of these terms, known as off-label prescribing, should only take place when the prescriber doing so judges it to be in the best interest of the patient, on the basis of the available evidence,” she added.
Influencer code crackdown?
Last month, C+D exclusively revealed that the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is “looking into” online pharmacies Curate Health and MedExpress.
At the time, C+D learned that the GPhC had received claims that the pharmacies were using illicit influencer discount codes to sell weight loss drugs.
Email complaints seen by C+D included screenshots of TikTok influencers promoting discount codes for different strengths of weight loss drug Mounjaro on Curate Health and claims that Medexpress was offering “free drugs” for influencers who advertised the weight loss POM.
Curate Health told C+D that the concerns were “historic and no longer active” and that the pharmacy “strives itself on patient protection”.
C+D also approached Medexpress for comment.
Earlier in the month, a C+D investigation found several online pharmacies appearing to flout regulations by giving influencers discount codes for weight loss services, including prescription drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro, to share with followers.
At the time, the GPhC exclusively told C+D that pharmacies “should not create or use” discount codes for POMs, including the creation of codes “for other advertising for example by social media influencers”.
The ASA also told C+D that if a pharmacy was not able to show that a discount was specifically for a consultation, then it would risk that the ad could be directly or indirectly advertising POMs, which would break its rules.
In November 2021, the regulator banned an ad for a discount on erectile dysfunction treatments for promoting POMs. The ad didn’t specifically mention a medicine, just “treatment”, but the ASA still found that it was promoting POMs by not clearly promoting non-POM treatment.
Weight loss drug worries
Meanwhile in June, health secretary Wes Streeting revealed plans for “much closer clinical oversight and regulation” around accessing weight loss drugs from online pharmacies, after C+D revealed that increasing numbers of people were turning up at A&E needing treatment after taking weight loss drugs.
At the time, C+D exclusively reported that a “young girl” was rushed to A&E for urgent treatment after presenting with life threatening symptoms after taking weight loss drug Wegovy that she had obtained through Boots Online Doctor.
The concerned A&E doctor C+D spoke to added that on “every” recent shift, a patient had presented with complications after using weight loss drugs.
The story was widely picked up in the national media and prompted calls from A&E doctors for the market to undergo a regulatory safety review.
"I'm really worried that drugs that could make a positive difference to our health are at risk of being misused,” Streeting said, adding that he is “genuinely terrified that someone is going to die”.
