Celebrities, physicians, patient advocacy groups, public health experts, academics, and a variety of community leaders have appeared in dozens of media outlets to tout the wonders of a new class of weight loss drugs without disclosing financial ties to Novo Nordisk.

This pharmaceutical behemoth is the driving force behind an aggressive campaign to persuade Americans of the merits of semaglutide, a diabetes and weight loss drug marketed under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy. This medication mimics the GLP-1 hormone, which assists patients in losing weight by regulating their appetite. As its popularity has surged the medication has encountered shortages, transforming Novo Nordisk into one of the most valuable pharmaceutical companies globally.

Amid the frenzy to cover this trendy new drug and a public relations push by pharmaceutical firms to promote the use of GLP-1 medications, media outlets have consistently failed to report on the associated risks and potential conflicts of interest among the experts they feature.

For instance, in the ongoing debate concerning insurance coverage for Ozempic, which currently costs approximately $1,350 per month, an ABC News story quoted only one physician, Dr. Deborah Horn, who advocated for Medicare to cover the medication. However, the article omitted that Horn has received nearly a quarter of a million dollars from Novo Nordisk since 2020. The article also cited a study on the coverage issue produced by the Urban League but failed to note that the study was financed by the same pharmaceutical giant. These lapses in disclosure are indicative of a pattern seen in much of the news coverage surrounding this drug.

Dr. Angela Fitch of the Obesity Medicine Association has been quoted by the Washington Post and Washington Examiner calling for insurance programs to pay for Ozempic. Both publications failed to disclose that Novo Nordisk pays Fitch as a consultant and underwrites the group she leads.

Similarly, Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford has appeared in a series of high-profile publications urging the adoption of GLP-1 medications as an obesity treatment. USA Today only identified Stanford as “an obesity medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital.” CNBC, which quoted her on the biases that prevent patients from receiving the “treatment they need and they deserve,” cited Stanford’s affiliation with Harvard University. Neither publication noted her work as a paid consultant to Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which produces its own line of GLP-1 medications.  

In February, NBC News reported on claims that stigma is preventing doctors from prescribing Ozempic. The article quoted a group called the “Obesity Action Coalition” and Rebecca Puhl, the deputy director of the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, who told the media outlet that weight bias is keeping the medication out of the hands of patients.

“Unfortunately, the public viewpoint is that, if a person takes a medication, they’ve taken the easy way out to lose weight,” said Puhl in the article. 

Again, NBC News failed to report that Puhl is a recent consultant for Novo Nordisk, and that the Obesity Action Center receives more than $500,000 per year from the company.

Every major media outlet contacted for comment either did not respond, or asked for more information about the type of story I was writing, and then fell silent.

James Zervios, the vice president of the Obesity Action Coalition, said that his group discloses its donors on its website, information that he said is readily available to any media outlet that speaks to his organization. “The OAC advocates for all FDA-approved treatments for the disease of obesity,” he said. The group has long supported expanding Medicare coverage options to include obesity medications.

Puhl, in an email, noted that her work focuses singularly on weight stigma issues and she does not explicitly endorse any obesity medication. Her previous consulting with Novo Nordisk, and more recently from Eli Lilly, she said, was not related to their medications for obesity. Decisions about GLP-1 medications should be between a patient and a doctor, she noted.

”I’ve stopped doing interviews on this topic because in a couple of cases the reporters only chose to use certain comments from me to bolster one side of the issue, which made me uncomfortable and did not accurately reflect my views,” wrote Puhl.

Novo Nordisk did not return questions about its role in funding doctors, patient groups, and public relations firms.

Much of the news coverage promoting the weight loss treatment has taken a racial justice angle, citing rates of obesity and diabetes in certain minority communities. Rapper and actress Queen Latifah, for instance, is a paid spokesperson for Novo Nordisk. She has appeared in marketing materials for the company, encouraging Black women to seek the company’s obesity medications as a solution to the racial health gap. While some publications covering the marketing campaign have disclosed her ties to the company, others, like BET Magazine, which published an article about Queen Latifah’s campaign to promote obesity medication, have not.

The narrative that GLP-1 drugs will solve racial disparities in the obesity epidemic has been pushed explicitly by pharmaceutical firms. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have carefully courted community leaders from Asian, Black and Latino groups and touted the drug’s ability to improve health outcomes among minorities.

The company is working closely with Precision Strategies, a communications firm co-founded by Jen O’Malley Dillon, a consultant who helped manage President Joe Biden’s 2020 election campaign and now serves as the White House deputy chief of staff, which is helping to steer this narrative.

Precision Strategies is pitching the Health Equity Coalition for Chronic Disease, which says it is “focused on eliminating barriers to healthcare for communities of color disproportionately impacted by chronic diseases like obesity.” The only chronic disease the group targets is obesity, and its primary focus is the expansion of GLP-1 medications.

The Health Equity Coalition, which launched last year, has a public website but provides no information about its staff, its internal finances, or even its physical location. The group, though, produces a steady stream of content on social media pressing lawmakers to pass the Treat & Reduce Obesity Act, or TROA, which would allow Medicare to cover weight loss drugs like Ozempic. Moments after legislators raised support for the legislation in an otherwise sleepy congressional subcommittee earlier this month, the Health Equity Coalition clipped the video and promoted it on its social media feed.

Many of the opinion columns promoted by the Health Equity Coalition contain copycat language, suggesting a ghostwriting campaign.