The MHRA has welcomed the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) first bans on adverts promoting oral weight-loss medicines, warning that organisations breaching advertising rules could face regulatory action.
The ASA’s rulings concerned adverts promoting unlicensed and prescription-only treatments to the public. The action included advertising by Simple Online Pharmacy and Pharmacy Online, which invited consumers to join waiting lists or pre-order oral weight-management medicines.
Responding to the announcement, Julian Beach, Interim Executive Director of Healthcare, Quality and Access, MHRA, said: “We welcome the ASA’s action in these cases, which highlights the importance of dealing swiftly with adverts that break the rules.”
The MHRA, as well as ensuring medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion meet strict standards in the UK, are also responsible for making sure advertising of medicinal products complies with requirements of Part 14 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (HMRs).
Beach added in his statement: “The MHRA expects all organisations promoting medicines to comply fully with advertising regulations, which exist to protect patient safety. Stimulating consumer demand for a new prescription medicine is not permitted.”
In the recent rulings, ASA found that Simple Online Pharmacy promoted oral GLP-1 treatments before any such medicine had been authorised in the UK.
Similarly, its action against Pharmacy Online concerned adverts promoting oral Wegovy (semaglutide) after it had been licensed as a prescription-only medicine.
The cases highlight restrictions at both stages of a medicine’s development and launch that unauthorised medicines cannot be promoted, while prescription-only medicines cannot be advertised to the public once licensed.
Beach said: “We take advertising that breaches the rules when promoting prescription-only medicines to the public, including weight loss medicines, very seriously.
“We work closely with fellow regulators, including the ASA, to tackle advertising that puts public health at risk.”
The MHRA’s response also highlighted its collaboration with the ASA to address advertising that puts public health at risk.
Beach said this approach had been reaffirmed through a joint warning issued earlier this year to advertisers seeking to promote newly licensed and unlicensed medicines for weight management.
The statement reinforces the agency’s expectations for organisations planning promotional activity around these treatments, with compliance and patient protection remaining central to its response.
Beach said: “Where breaches occur, we will not hesitate to use the full range of regulatory powers available to secure compliance and protect the public.”
Featured image: Xavier Lorenzo on AdobeStock
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