By Karim Hammam
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned advertisements from three weight-loss drug companies for promoting prescription-only medicines to the public, the watchdog announced on Wednesday.
ASA bans Voy, Juniper and MedExpress ads
The rulings target two ads from Voy's "The weight is over" campaign, a YouTube ad for Juniper, and an Instagram ad for MedExpress. All four advertisements were found to promote oral weight-loss treatments that are available only by prescription.
Ads implied prescription-only medicines
Voy's bus-side advert in July showed a hand holding a white tablet under the headline "The weight is over… Voy", while a video-on-demand ad in August displayed a pill with the wording "Oral weight support" and "It's kind of a small deal". The ASA said the imagery and wording were likely to lead viewers to believe they were advertising the newly available oral Wegovy tablets, a prescription-only GLP-1 medicine licensed in June. References to the food supplement glucomannan in small print were insufficient to change that impression.
Juniper's YouTube ad stated "The weight loss pill is here", while MedExpress's Instagram ad promoted "New weight loss tablets", "No needles" and invited people to "Join the waitlist". Neither named a specific prescription product directly.
Regulators warn of public health risks
Catherine Drewett, investigations manager at the ASA, said the rulings clarify that advertisers must consider the overall impression their ads create. A medicine does not need to be named for an ad to be understood as promoting a prescription-only medicine, she said. Julian Beach, executive director of operations at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), welcomed the rulings, stating that prescription medicines are not consumer goods and promoting them can have serious impacts on public health.
Voy responds to ruling
Voy's chief medical officer, Dr Earim Chaudry, said the company's campaigns were developed to align with UK advertising standards and that every patient decision is clinician-led. The company withdrew the advert during the investigation and will not run it again, cooperating fully with the ASA.
