Searching ‘weight’ can bring up Ozempic in results. It’s a drug advertising loophole : Shots
If you searched for “weight loss” on Google, there’s a good chance that one of the first search results displayed was a website for Ozempic.
But Ozempic hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for weight loss — it’s only approved to treat type 2 diabetes. So why is it showing up there?
The answer is what we call a sponsored search result. Companies pay search engines to have their websites listed among the first results you see if you enter certain keywords or phrases.
“Search engines are often the first place people turn when they have questions about health,” says Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, a researcher in the Regulatory, Therapeutics and Law Program at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“Pharmaceutical companies have figured out how to game this system with pay-per-click ads, which are essentially their way of buying their way to the top of search results,” he added.
Normally, pharmaceutical companies must follow strict rules when it comes to advertising their products in magazines or television commercials.
In particular, they must disclose the risks or side effects of the drug, and they cannot advertise a drug intended to treat a condition for which it has not been approved by the FDA, although doctors may sometimes prescribe the drug “off-label” to treat other conditions.
If they do, the companies could get in trouble with the FDA. The idea is to prevent ads that contain false or misleading material that could hurt someone.
But online sponsored search results, which typically appear above other results, are not regulated the way television ads are. The law has not kept up with the evolution of technology.
Eisenkraft Klein and colleagues examined two years of paid search results for Ozempic sponsored by the drug’s maker, Novo Nordisk.
They published the results of their study in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.
They found that 11 percent of the company’s paid search keywords or phrases contained the word “weight,” even though Ozempic is not approved for weight loss.
They also found that Novo Nordisk paid for search results even when keywords referred to the drug’s main competitors, such as Trulicity and Mounjaro, made by Eli Lilly.
“Novo Nordisk sponsored the search term ‘Kelly Clarkson Weight Loss,’ probably because those looking for celebrities and weight loss might be interested in their product,” says Eisenkraft Klein.
The researchers focused only on Ozempic for their study, and additional research is needed to examine sponsored results for other drugs and treatments, he says.
Eisenkraft Klein nevertheless believes that the study can be a lesson for consumers: “Don’t assume that Google shows you the most relevant information. Just because it’s first doesn’t mean it’s the most objective or relevant.”
He recommended scrolling through sponsored search results and looking for independent sources, such as academic medical centers, when researching medications online.
Contacted by NPR for comment, Novo Nordisk spokeswoman Liz Skrbkova said in an email that the study misrepresents the company’s “paid search approach,” which she said uses “industry-standard” capabilities to reach consumers.
Novo Nordisk complies with U.S. laws and regulations, she added, as well as its own ethical standards, “so patients can find information about our medicines to make shared decisions with their healthcare professionals about their care.”
The United States is one of the only countries that allows direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs.
The Trump administration signed a memo in September calling on the FDA to crack down on prescription drug advertising, saying the companies had been lax in disclosing risks.
The FDA also sent a series of enforcement letters to companies about their drug advertisements.
The FDA is committed to ensuring that promotional communications for prescription drugs are “true, balanced, and accurately communicated,” according to an email from Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA’s parent agency. She also encouraged people to report concerns to the agency’s Bad Ad program.
A Google spokesperson, Nate Funkhouser, said in a statement to NPR that it has clear policies regarding prescription drug advertising: “Advertisers are fully responsible for ensuring that their advertising strategy, including all keywords and content, meets regulatory requirements.”
