Once again, Novo Nordisk has been admonished by a U.K. trade group for violating voluntary marketing codes and discrediting the entire pharmaceutical industry — and the move comes just one year after the company was suspended from the organization for the way it promoted an obesity drug.
In the latest episode, the company was cited for “misleading” and “unbalanced” comments made by its chief executive officer, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, to The Sunday Times of London in an August 2022 interview about the “war on obesity” and, specifically, the Wegovy weight loss medication.
The article highlighted the growing number of people considered obese and the efforts that Novo Nordisk was making to tap this lucrative market. However, Jørgensen managed to run afoul of voluntary guidelines established by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority, a self-regulatory body overseen by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, or ABPI.
