The company behind popular weight-loss drugs failed to disclose millions of pounds it paid to healthcare groups and patient organisations, a pharmaceutical watchdog has said.
Novo Nordisk – which manufactures Wegovy, Ozempic and Saxenda – misreported, under-reported or did not disclose funding it gave to pharmacy firms, obesity charities and other professional bodies, according to the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA).
This included £1.2m in payments to healthcare and patient organisations.
Payments were also misattributed to the wrong organisations, including £338,435 paid to the World Obesity Federation that was originally listed as paid to the Association for British HealthTech Industries.
The investigation, led by researchers from the University of Bath, UK and Lund University, Sweden, uncovered a number of serious breaches of the pharmaceutical industry’s code of practice. The research team spent more than 100 hours analysing documents, websites and reports to find evidence of unreported payments.
It’s not the first time Novo Nordisk has failed to disclose the payments it has made. In 2023, it admitted to the PMCPA it had not disclosed £7.8m it paid to more than 150 organisations over three years.
However, this latest investigation revealed that even after conducting an internal review, the company still failed to record a further £635,000 in additional payments. The company said the figures submitted in their voluntary admission were a “best estimate”.
Dr Emily Rickard said: “The failure to disclose payments is especially troubling, given it coincided with the UK launch of…
