Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk sponsored British pharmacies in pursuit of sales

London: So, it turns out that Novo Nordisk, the company behind Wegovy, has been pouring a ton of cash into British pharmacies like Boots and Lloyds. They’re trying to ramp up sales of their weight-loss drugs, and it’s raised quite a few eyebrows.

They’ve been funding everything from Google ads to staff training, all in the name of promoting their products. In return, they get detailed reports on how well these ads are doing and how many prescriptions are being written. Sounds a bit fishy, right?

Some online pharmacies even got sponsorships, but there’s a catch. A few of them ended up promoting these drugs in ways that broke the law. One pharmacy got £30,000 but was later found to be advertising prescription-only meds, which is a big no-no.

Novo Nordisk claims everything was above board and followed industry standards. But critics are calling it a huge conflict of interest. Dr. Margaret McCartney, a GP, pointed out that it’s pretty wild for drug companies to be sponsoring pharmacies. She’s worried about how this affects the integrity of healthcare.

The financial ties between these pharmacies and Novo Nordisk were uncovered through some digging into industry payments. Between 2021 and 2023, they sponsored several pharmacy chains to help develop and market weight-loss services.

For instance, they signed a £95,000 deal with Boots to train pharmacists on weight management. They even provided free supplies like needles and marketing materials to other pharmacies. In exchange, these pharmacies had to report back on how many people were getting prescriptions for Saxenda.

Recently, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) raised concerns about these sponsorships, saying they could be seen as an inducement to prescribe. They found that Novo Nordisk had breached several industry codes, which is a big deal.

Boots said the issues flagged by the PMCPA didn’t involve them, but they still want to provide balanced information to patients. Meanwhile, Lloyds Pharmacy, which got a whopping £246,303 from Novo Nordisk, went into liquidation earlier this year.

The company has also been linked to online clinics that promoted its products illegally. They even got in trouble for advertising weight-loss drugs directly to the public, which is against the rules.

Despite all this, Novo Nordisk insists they’re just trying to help patients and that their sponsorships are for legitimate purposes. But with so many questions about the ethics of these deals, it’s clear that the conversation around advertising prescription drugs is far from over.