Searching 'weight' can bring up Ozempic in results. It's a drug advertising loophole

If you've googled "weight loss," there's a bully chance that 1 of nan first hunt results that came up was a website for Ozempic.

But Ozempic hasn't been approved by nan Food and Drug Administration for weight nonaccomplishment — it's only approved to dainty Type 2 diabetes. So why is it showing up there?

The reply is thing called a sponsored search result. Companies salary hunt engines truthful that their websites are among nan first results you see, if you participate definite keywords aliases phrases.

"Search engines are often nan first spot group spell erstwhile they person wellness questions," says Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, a investigation chap astatine nan Program connected Regulation, Therapeutics and Law astatine Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"Pharmaceutical companies person figured retired really to crippled that strategy pinch pay-per-click ads, which are fundamentally their measurement of buying their measurement to nan apical of hunt results," he added.

Normally, supplier companies person to travel strict rules erstwhile it comes to advertizing their products successful magazines aliases tv commercials.

They person to do things for illustration disclose risks aliases broadside effects of nan drug, and they can't advertise a supplier to dainty a information it hasn't been FDA-approved to treat, moreover if doctors whitethorn sometimes prescribe that supplier "off label," to dainty different conditions.

If they do, nan companies tin get successful problem pinch nan FDA. The thought is to forestall ads containing mendacious aliases misleading worldly that tin perchance wounded someone.

But online sponsored hunt results, which usually look connected apical of different results, aren't regulated nan measurement TV ads are. The rule hasn't caught up to nan changing technology.

Eisenkraft Klein and his colleagues looked astatine 2 years of paid hunt results for Ozempic sponsored by nan drug's maker, Novo Nordisk.

They published their study results successful nan aesculapian diary JAMA Network Open.

They recovered that 11 percent of nan hunt keywords aliases phrases nan institution paid for contained nan connection 'weight' moreover though Ozempic isn't approved for weight loss.

They besides recovered that Novo Nordisk paid for hunt results moreover erstwhile nan keywords referred to nan drug's main competitors, specified arsenic Trulicity and Mounjaro, manufactured by Eli Lilly.

"Novo Nordisk sponsored nan hunt word 'Kelly Clarkson weight loss', presumably because those searching for celebrities and weight nonaccomplishment mightiness beryllium willing successful their product," Eisenkraft Klein says.

The researchers focused only connected Ozempic for their study, and much investigation is needed to look into sponsored results for different narcotics and therapeutics, he says.

Still, Eisenkraft Klein says nan study tin beryllium a instruction for consumers: "Don't presume that Google is showing you nan astir applicable information. Just because it's first doesn't mean it's nan astir objective, aliases nan astir relevant."

He recommended scrolling past nan sponsored hunt results and looking for independent sources, specified arsenic world aesculapian centers, erstwhile doing medicine investigation online.

Contacted by NPR for comment, Novo Nordisk spokeswoman Liz Skrbkova said successful an email nan study misrepresents nan company's "paid hunt approach," which she says uses "industry-standard" capabilities to scope consumers.

Novo Nordisk is successful compliance pinch U.S. laws and regulations, she added, arsenic good arsenic its ain ethical standards, "so that patients tin find accusation astir our medicines to make shared decisions pinch their healthcare professionals astir their care."

The United States is 1 of nan only countries that allows direct-to-consumer advertizing for medicine drugs.

The Trump management signed a memo calling connected nan FDA to crack down connected medicine supplier advertising successful September, saying companies had been lax astir disclosing risks.

The FDA besides sent retired a slew of enforcement letters to companies astir their supplier ads.

The FDA is committed to making judge that promotional communications for medicine narcotics are "truthful, balanced and accurately communicated," according to an email from Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for nan Department of Health and Human Services, nan genitor agency for nan FDA. She besides encouraged group to study concerns to nan agency's Bad Ad Program.

A Google spokesman, Nate Funkhouser, said successful a connection to NPR that it has clear policies for advertizing medicine drugs: "Advertisers are afloat responsible for ensuring their advertizing strategy, including each keywords and content, adheres to regulatory requirements."