An examination by The BMJ highlights the failure of UK regulative bodies, including the MHRA and ASA, to successfully implement laws governing prescription drug ads, especially for weight loss drugs like Wegovy. And among 16 cases where the MHRA took action by asking for modifications to adverts for weight loss drugs in between June 2022 and July 2023, all were activated by external problems, not internal systems, and none resulted in sanctions.James Cave, Editor in Chief of the Drug & & Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB), a BMJ journal with a focus on drug safety, stated that the lack of sanctions and internal monitoring provides just a weak reward for companies to abstain from marketing prescription drugs.Concerns Over Online Advertising of WegovyHe ended up being concerned about inadequate regulation after an online search for the prescription-only weight loss medicine Wegovy (semaglutide) prompted what he thought about to be “an entire list of adverts,” even though he says long-term negative effects of Wegovy are not known.A web search by The BMJ for the terms “Wegovy,” “pharmacy, and “UK” had hundreds of thousands of hits, including a blog post by Pharmadoctor, a site which supports pharmacists to provide services for patients.Pharmadoctors blog post, entitled “All about Wegovy,” stated that “Wegovy is a weekly weight loss injection made popular by celebs such as Elon Musk and Boris Johnson. The Pharmadoctor post was amongst the very first results when browsing for “Wegovy,” “pharmacy,” and “UK.
