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‘When I look around this room,’ Jimmy Kimmel told the star-studded crowd at the 2023 Oscars, ‘I can’t help but wonder: Is Ozempic right for me?’

The gag didn’t just trigger a wave of laughter through the Hollywood royalty in the room, several of whom were probably using the blockbuster weight loss drug, it confirmed Ozempic’s status as one of the most hyped treatments in American history.

But Ozempic’s place in the zeitgeist wasn’t just sealed by the desire of millions of Americans to shed fat without exercise or healthy eating.

The drug’s grip on society was also achieved through an enormous marketing campaign by its maker, Novo Nordisk, to promote Ozempic and its other drugs, including Wegovy. The company, according to legal filings, has spent around $1 billion since 2018 to create the perception ‘that sustained weight loss is only achievable’ by using the products.

Novo Nordisk has also paid tens of millions of dollars to leading physicians who specialize in obesity and cardiology to promote the drugs, encourage their peers to prescribe them and lobby insurers to cover the costs.

Jimmy Kimmel joked about Ozempic during the 2023 Oscars and Christina Applegate, 52, also made a gag about the drug during the Emmys in January (pictured)

Jimmy Kimmel joked about Ozempic during the 2023 Oscars and Christina Applegate, 52, also made a gag about the drug during the Emmys in January (pictured) 

But with the explosion in popularity thanks to Ozempic and Wegovy’s proven ability to help weight loss and treat diabetes (Ozempic’s primary purpose), the company now faces potentially thousands of lawsuits from patients who claim the drugs caused crippling side effects they weren’t warned about.

A DailyMail.com investigation recently revealed dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the company, including one from a woman who will suffer diarrhea forever after using Ozempic. Many cases refer extensively to Novo Nordisk’s ‘aggressive’ marketing. The company has said it believes the allegations in the lawsuits are ‘without merit’ and that the company will ‘vigorously defend against these claims’.

A spokesman for Novo Nordisk said it will ‘vigorously defend’ itself against the lawsuits. 

PHYSICIANS PAID MILLIONS

The lobbying of physicians by big pharma is nothing new. Clinicians can play a key role in the drug development process and promote the benefits of emerging and newly-approved drugs.

But Novo Nordisk’s lobbying has also sought to ‘change medical consensus as it relates to obesity’ by framing their drugs as the only way to achieve ‘sustainable weight loss’, the lawsuits allege.

Dr Ramin Ebrahimi, a professor of medicine at UCLA, was paid $113,489.06 by Novo Nordisk in 2022

Dr Ramin Ebrahimi, a professor of medicine at UCLA, was paid $113,489.06 by Novo Nordisk in 2022

DailyMail.com analysis reveals the company paid almost $34 million to physicians and practitioners in 2022 for work unrelated to research, including promotional speaking. The amount is the most Novo Nordisk has spent on such services since at least 2016, according to federal data on payments by pharmaceutical firms to physicians.

The data reveals the top paid doctor in 2022 was Dr Ramin Ebrahimi, a professor of medicine at UCLA, who received $113,489.06 for work which included consulting and speaking.

Payments to Ebrahimi, a leading cardiologist, include $10,218.85 paid on April 9, 2022 related to Rybelsus, an oral form of Ozempic which is used to treat type 2 diabetes and also prescribed off-label for weight loss.

Around six weeks later, he was paid $8,062.50 for a speaking engagement linked to Ozempic.

The records do not disclose further details of the talks and not all of the records state which of Novo Nordisk’s drugs the payments relate to. Ebrahimi has previously disclosed his paid relationship with Novo Nordisk alongside his publications in scientific journals.

Dr Josh Stolker was the physician paid the second highest amount by the company. He received $106,866.28 from Novo Nordisk in 2022.

Stolker, a cardiologist based in St Louis, Missouri, has appeared in several official Novo Nordisk videos where he talks about Ozempic and also spoken on podcasts sponsored by the company.

He has said Ozempic’s ability to cut the risk of heart complications in some patients while also leading to weight loss makes it a ‘win-win’ drug.

Payments to Stolker include $10,368.75 on April 4 to talk about Rybelsus, a tablet form of Ozempic, and $8,437.50 on January 25 to speak about Ozempic.

Dr Lee Kaplan, one of the country's leading obesity specialists, was paid $1.4 million by Novo Nordisk between 2013 and 2022

Dr Lee Kaplan, one of the country’s leading obesity specialists, was paid $1.4 million by Novo Nordisk between 2013 and 2022

Kaplan has spoken enthusiastically about the value of using drugs including Novo Nordisk's Wegovy to tackle obesity and reportedly said lifelong prescriptions should be considered

Kaplan has spoken enthusiastically about the value of using drugs including Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy to tackle obesity and reportedly said lifelong prescriptions should be considered

Other top-paid physicians last year include Dana Kay Webber, an obesity specialist who received $102,787.39. A biography of Webber, a Tennessee-based family nurse practitioner, explains how her ‘passion and focus is to treat and bring awareness to the disease of obesity’.

The federal data highlights how several of the country’s leading obesity doctors have received payments in excess of $1 million from Novo Nordisk.

Dr Lee Kaplan, one of the country’s leading obesity specialists, was paid $1.4 million between 2013 and 2022, according to an analysis by Reuters.

Kaplan is the influential former head of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital.

He holds an annual obesity course which was attended by around 400 doctors last year, when he spoke enthusiastically about the value of drugs including Wegovy, which has FDA approval for weight management, in tackling obesity.

Kaplan said the historical approach of promoting better diets and more exercise had failed and that lifelong prescriptions of such drugs must also be considered, Reuters reported.

Indeed, studies have shown that patients who stop using the drugs often regain the weight they lost – and sometimes more.

‘We are going to have to use these medications for as long as the body wants to have obesity,’ he told the conference in Boston in June.

Kaplan has defended his work and told Reuters he doesn’t ‘kowtow to the companies’, adding: ‘If I can’t defend what I’m doing as being both appropriate and ethical, then I shouldn’t be doing it.’

Dr Donna Ryan, the former president of The Obesity Society, who also spoke at the event with Kaplan, has been paid more than $1 million by Novo Nordisk since 2013. The payments include $600,691 related to Wegovy and Saxenda, another of the company’s weight loss drugs.

Novo Nordisk has funded trips for Ryan to locations including Paris, Madrid and Abu Dhabi as part of her work for the company.

Ryan told Reuters she was ‘proud of the work I’ve done on behalf of patients with obesity’.

Several of the physicians paid by Novo Nordisk have advocated for obesity patients to be prescribed the company’s products and also lobbied for insurers to cover the medications.

Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor emeritus of pediatrics and endocrinology at the University of California at San Francisco, said: ‘I’m not against the drugs; what I am against is the indiscriminate use of the drugs for everyone. But that’s what the drug company wants, because that’s where the money is.’

$1BN MARKETING BLITZ

Few Americans won’t have heard the cheery jingle which features in many Ozempic commercials, written to the tune of ‘Magic’, the 1974 hit by Pilot.

‘Oh, oh, oh, Ozempic,’ goes the tune as it plays over commercials which describe the benefits for diabetes patients before adding that users also lost up to 14lb taking the drug.

The first TV commercial for Ozempic was aired in July 2018 and marked the beginning of a massive promotional campaign by Novo Nordisk, which has since spent around $884 million on TV ads alone, plus more through advertising on social media.

Analysis published by Xtalks reveals Ozempic had the fourth largest TV advertising budget of all Pharma products in 2022 after Novo Nordisk spent an estimated $157 million on commercials. (The top three brands were immunology drugs for eczema, arthritis, psoriasis and asthma.)

The ‘priciest’, according to the analysis, was the Ozempic Tri-zone ad which features the reworked Magic track as its jingle and touts the drug’s weight-loss benefits. The campaign cost around $87 million.

Lawsuits against Novo Nordisk have referred to the ‘aggressive marketing of the weight loss benefits of Ozempic’ and ‘America’s socially ingrained desire to be thin’ as generating a ‘tipping point’ for the drug’s popularity in 2021.

Novo Nordisk said it ‘does not disclose or comment on its marketing spend and that its campaigns are ‘consistent with approved labeling and all applicable US laws and regulations’.

The firm added that it does not ‘in any way communicate or suggest that our medicines are the “only way to achieve sustainable weight-loss”’, and described claims that it does as ‘inaccurate’.

An industry analysis found Ozempic had the fourth largest TV advertising budget of all Pharma products in 2022, with $157 million spent on commercials

An industry analysis found Ozempic had the fourth largest TV advertising budget of all Pharma products in 2022, with $157 million spent on commercials

Sharon Osbourne has opened up about her own use of Ozempic, which caused her weight to drop below 100lb. She has warned about the dangers of extreme weight loss

Sharon Osbourne has opened up about her own use of Ozempic, which caused her weight to drop below 100lb. She has warned about the dangers of extreme weight loss

Chelsea Handler claimed she used Ozempic briefly without even realizing after she was given it by her anti-aging doctor, who 'just hands it out to anybody'

Chelsea Handler claimed she used Ozempic briefly without even realizing after she was given it by her anti-aging doctor, who ‘just hands it out to anybody’

On social media, the Ozempic hashtag had been viewed 272 million times by November 2022 and had over 1.2 billion views by December 2023, indicating an exponential increase across the past year. Thousands of adverts have also been placed on Facebook and Instagram.

The hype went into overdrive last year as celebrities started speaking about their own experiences with Novo Nordisk’s products. Elon Musk credited Wegovy for helping him get ‘ripped’ and a visibly slimmed-down Sharon Osborne talked about her dramatic weight loss with Ozempic — while issuing a warning to others about the dangers.

Chelsea Handler said she took Ozempic without even realizing after she was prescribed it by her anti-aging doctor, who ‘just hands it out to anybody’.  Handler said she shed a few pounds but stopped using it after she realized it was Ozempic — saying it should be left for diabetes patients.

Ozempic was described by one advertising magazine as 2023's 'buzziest drug'

Ozempic was described by one advertising magazine as 2023’s ‘buzziest drug’

Ozempic was described by AdAge, a leading marketing magazine as, ‘2023’s buzziest drug’ and one of the ‘hottest brands, disrupting US culture and industry’ — indicating its influence not only on healthcare but society as a whole.

Sales of Ozempic and related drugs used for weight loss surged more than 300 percent last year, according to estimates.

The success has brought massive profits for Novo Nordisk, whose share price has risen around 600 percent since 2016, the year it applied for FDA approval of Ozempic. It is now the most valuable listed company in Europe.

Kimmel’s Oscars gag about Ozempic was followed earlier this week with another namedrop at the Emmys, where actress Christina Applegate joked her body is ‘not by Ozempic’ during comments which referred to her 2021 diagnosis with multiple sclerosis.

Those jokes weren’t just a nod to Hollywood’s (and society’s) embrace of Ozempic, Wegovy and other weight-loss drugs to achieve a better body without the burdens of exercise and good diet. They were the result of Novo Nordic’s relentless marketing machine, which has placed their drugs front and center in American culture.

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This post first appeared on Daily mail

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