Senators Call on FDA to Act Against Misleading Weight-Loss Drug Commercials
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 12, 2025 -- Commercials run by the telehealth company Hims & Hers have been placed under the microscope as lawmakers are calling out advertisement of prescription of injectable weight-loss drugs without disclosing safety and risk information.
In a currently running advertisement, the direct-to-consumer telehealth company promotes its ability to prescribe and dispense glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist medications to patients. The commercials include claims about the effectiveness of the weight-loss drugs, as well as imagery of an injection pen not unlike an existing brand-name medication.
Last week, ahead of the commercial running during Super Bowl LIX, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.) sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to alert the agency to the advertisement.
"An upcoming Super Bowl advertisement, which has been publicly posted online, appears to showcase a company's ability to prescribe and dispense GLP-1 medications to patients," the letter states. "However, nowhere in this promotion is there any side effect disclosure, risk, or safety information as would be typically required in a pharmaceutical advertisement. Further, for only three seconds during the minute-long commercial does the screen flash in small, barely legible font, that these products are not FDA-approved."
The commercial appears to be taking advantage of a perceived loophole in federal law regarding promotions of compounded drugs by telehealth companies, according to a press release from Sen. Durbin. However, Sens. Durbin and Marshal contend that this advertisement does fall under FDA jurisdiction.
"To the extent this falls within a regulatory loophole for the FDA's authorities, we plan to soon introduce bipartisan legislation to close this gap, so that patients are not deceived by advertisements that glaringly omit critical safety and side effect information," the letter concludes. "But, we believe FDA may already have the authority to take enforcement action against marketing that may mislead patients about this company's products."
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
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