Advertising watchdog finds Wegovy used font too small for billboard

Should drug companies advertise direct to consumers?

A billboard for weight loss drug Wegovy used a font that was too small for the mandatory information required for advertising prescription medicines, the advertising watchdog has found.

The case has sparked renewed debate about advertising of prescription medicines direct to consumers.

The Advertising Standards Authority investigated a complaint about the ad, featured on a 30-second rotation digital billboard in Wellington, and advertiser Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals agreed to make changes in future.

The authority found the information was "not sufficiently accessible enough to be read and understood by consumers" but the advertiser had agreed to changes to the font and layout in future, which settled the complaint.

Dr Janet Joek, Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago, said there was a need for "clear, balanced, and well-explained information" about the risks, side effects and potential benefits of medicines before speaking with their doctor.

She argued that a 30-second advertisement with key details displayed in small print or scrolling across a screen do not provide that information.

Meanwhile, David Menkes, associate professor of psychological medicine at the University of Auckland, said the case highlights a bigger issue around advertising of prescription drugs.

New Zealand and the United States are the only high-income countries that let drug companies advertise directly to consumers.

"This New Zealand policy, just like the one in the US, has done more harm than good and should be ditched as soon as there's political will to do so," Menkes told Checkpoint.

The Council of Medical Colleges does not support the practice and considers it can lead to increased costs, inappropriate prescribing, overtreatment and medicine-caused harm.

The Council also says it may put the doctor-patient relationship at risk.

Menkes said the net effect on public health from direct-to-consumer advertising is overall harder to determine but decades of research did show over diagnosis and over treatment.

Medicines New Zealand, representing the industry, and said companies follow a rigourous process when they're producing advertising to consumers.

It includes checks that promotional claims are accurate and substantiated by references, along with ensuring the advertising complies with legislation and regulations.

"Whilst in this case the compliance checks that will undoubtedly have been undertaken by the advertiser in advance of the billboard going up, may not have been 100 percent full proof, overall, this case demonstrates the system of self-regulation and checks and balances works to ensure that expected standards are met for public advertising," said Medicines NZ chief executive Dr Graeme Jarvis.

He said the Ministry of Health had conducted two independent reviews and found that on balance there was no evidence to justify banning direct-to-consumer advertising.

New Zealand also approached the advertising process differently to the US.

"It is our view that a ban would see the New Zealand public at the mercy of seeking or obtaining unregulated, unbalanced, and harmful information from overseas sources and illicit domestic purveyors of prescription medicines using the internet, rather than from well-regulated sources such as regulated advertisements and regulated consumer information websites here in New Zealand."

Menkes said New Zealand should join most of the rest of the world in banning advertising of prescription medicines.