Wegovy, Ozempic Maker Spent Nearly $26 Million Lobbying US Obesity Doctors: Report

The European company behind popular — and expensive — weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Saxenda reportedly doled out nearly $26 million to U.S. medical specialists who would later become major advocates of its obesity drugs.

At least 57 U.S. physicians individually accepted at least $100,000 from Denmark-based Novo Nordisk for payments associated with Wegovy or Saxenda over the past decade, according to a Reuters investigation. A majority of those professionals were obesity specialists who run weight-management clinics, work at academic hospitals, draft obesity-treatment guidelines or hold elite positions at "medical societies," Reuters reported.

Notably, the publication's analysis of payments by pharmaceutical and medical-device firms to medical professionals excluded payments related to Ozempic, focusing entirely on Wegovy and Saxenda. It also excluded payments labeled as research-related.

Pharmaceutical companies paying doctors lavish amounts in return for consulting, promotional talks and advocacy is nothing new; ProPublica in 2019 found more than 700 doctors who were paid over $1 million for their services. Those companies collectively spent just shy of $12.6 billion in 2022, compared to nearly $6.5 billion in 2014, the first full year that data was collected, according to OpenPayments.

These medical professionals then, often, tow the company's line in medical courses, conferences and publications, influencing how patients are treated. Physicians who received industry payments have also been more willing to prescribe drugs made by the companies that paid them.

“The pharmaceutical industry still sees value in paying medical thought leaders to promote their products, and too many of them are happy to sign up for a six- or seven-figure check,” Dr. Arthur Kellermann, a health administrator and former dean of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, told Reuters. He added that such pavements were "morally and ethically way over the line."

Among Novo's highest-paid professionals was Dr. Lee Kaplan, the 69-year-old gastroenterologist and chief of obesity medicine at Dartmouth College's medical school. Kaplan has also taught at Harvard Medical School and led the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Between 2013 and 2022, he was paid $1.4 million for consulting work and travel by Novo, according to Reuters. For the majority of those payments — $976,019 — the company didn't name a specific drug he was paid for work on; just $262,038 was directly related to Wegovy and Saxenda, while $131,624 was for an older diabetes medicine that shares a main ingredient with Saxenda, Reuters reported.

“I don’t kowtow to the companies,” Kaplan told the news agency. “If I can’t defend what I’m doing as being both appropriate and ethical, then I shouldn’t be doing it.”

Weight-loss drugs have become a verifiable money-maker for Novo, with the company earning 9.6 billion Danish kroner ($1.36 billion) in Wegovy sales alone last quarter — an eight-fold jump from the same time last year. U.S. prescriptions of GLP-1 medications — the appetite-suppressing injections that Ozempic and Wegovy are classified as — jumped 50% year-over-year.

With Wegovy as a crutch, Novo became Europe's most valuable company in September, and when shortages occurred, interest was renewed in competing products. However, researchers have discovered a string of health risks associated with the drug.

These drugs have been linked to stomach paralysis, bowel obstruction, severe nausea and other issues. They could also fuel eating disorders and stunt growth, according to at least one study.

“To prevent and defeat a serious chronic condition like obesity, we need to do more than supply the right medicine,” Novo told Reuters, defending its spending on doctors. “This is why we work with medical professionals, institutions and other experts to conduct research and educate and raise awareness about obesity, a condition that has long been underrecognized and misunderstood.”

The drugmaker has also dropped more than $3.6 million between January and September on lobbying members of Congress on issues including Medicaid and Medicare coverage for anti-obesity drugs and the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2021.