By Basant El-Faramawy
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned four advertisements for promoting prescription-only weight loss pills to the public, the regulator announced on Wednesday 4 November 2026.
Ads Promoted Prescription-Only Medicines
The banned ads include two from Voy’s “The weight is over” campaign, as well as advertisements from Juniper and MedExpress for oral weight-loss prescription medicines. None of the ads named the medicines directly, but the ASA ruled they created the impression they were advertising the newly licensed oral Wegovy tablets. The first oral GLP-1 tablet for weight management was licensed as a prescription-only medicine in June.
One Voy ad, displayed on a bus in Liverpool in July, showed a hand holding a white pill with the headline “The weight is over…Voy”. A second Voy ad, shown on video-on-demand services in August, featured a pill with the wording “Oral weight support” and “It’s kind of a small deal”. Both included small-print references to a glucomannan food supplement, but the ASA said the overall impression was that they promoted prescription medication.
A YouTube ad for Juniper stated “The weight loss pill is here”, while an Instagram ad for MedExpress promoted “New weight loss tablets”, “No needles” and invited people to “Join the waitlist”.
ASA Ruling and Industry Response
Catherine Drewett, investigations manager at the ASA, said the rulings make clear that advertisers must consider the overall impression their ads create. She noted that a medicine does not need to be named for an ad to be understood as promoting a prescription-only medicine, and that references to a non-medicinal product in small print do not necessarily change that impression. Drewett added that the ASA is using AI monitoring to keep the sector under ongoing review and will not hesitate to take action against ads that break the rules.
Voy chief medical officer Dr Earim Chaudry said every patient decision at Voy is clinician-led and the campaigns were developed to align with UK advertising standards. He said the company withdrew the advert during the investigation and will not run it again, and that it cooperated fully with the ASA.
MHRA Welcomes Action
Julian Beach, executive director of operations at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), welcomed the rulings. He said prescription medicines are not consumer goods and promoting them can have serious impacts on public health, adding that safeguards exist to protect people and support appropriate treatment decisions between patients and healthcare professionals.
Last month, ads for oral weight loss medicines became the first to be banned for promoting unlicensed and prescription-only products to the public, with Simple Online Pharmacy and Pharmacy Online also sanctioned for social media ads and website promotions inviting people to join waiting lists and pre-order treatment.
