Pharmacies online are no longer allowed to run ads to inject weight loss, and ads have been controlled as part of a campaign as described as a “Wild West” culture for sale online.
In the UK, the medicines issued by medical prescriptions only (POMS)-which include all weight loss officers such as Wegovy and Mountjaro-for the public illegal. However, the trustee achieved some online pharmacies either broken these rules directly, or the exploitation of gray areas to collect medicines for the public.
Now the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has issued nine new rulings, she says, it will put clear precedents for advertisers.
the Asa said that the new rulings mean that although pharmacies can continue to mention weight loss injections on their websites, provided that they are not displayed on the main pages or pages intended from other links, ads were banned from using “weight loss injections” and “weight loss pen”, and treatments must be marketed instead as part of the intermediate service, including consultations and prescriptions.
In addition, ASA said that in the context of advertisements for weight loss treatments, ads were unable to display pictures of medical injection pens, whether they are without brands, or were not, or if they were a vial of the liquid in the foreground, or contained links to the pages of the intended where the name Poms was upgraded, or the only option available.
Experts say that the ban on the announcement of POMS protects the public by preventing people from being exposed to unjustified commercial pressure, ensuring safe recipes, and avoiding excessive obscurity on daily fears.
“Part of our comprehensive strategy is to protect vulnerable people from harm, and there is nothing harmful like strong drugs only for prescriptions only,” said Nikki Morgan, ASA president.
ASA was investigating 13 advertisements related to weight loss medications only, with the results of nine of these drugs that were released today.
It is largely related to advertisements that have been marked in a monitoring survey during the month of August and September 2024 by ASA’s active ads monitoring system, an artificial intelligence approach that proactively searches for online ads that may break the rules.
ASA said that artificial intelligence monitors led to the treatment of 28 million ads in all sectors in 2024, with 94 % of the modified or clouds coming from the artificial intelligence system.
The organizer said that the artificial intelligence system will continue to search for problem advertisements, which helps the body identify the perpetrators of repeated crimes. It has already identified more than 20,000 advertisements of 35 high priority pharmacy between February and June this year, 10,000 of which were for weight loss.
While 80 of these ads are found to use or mention the name of the weight loss medication directly, most of the images used in weight loss pens, or implicitly with the power of using POMS to lose weight without naming the drug.
Asa said while there are many ads that could be more problematic for weight loss treatments in the public domain, those who were chosen for recent investigations were the issues that are being operated in the advertisement.
Among the advertisements that calm down from ASA in the latest provisions, those who promoted “weight loss treatments” were directly related to web pages where the only treatment options were Poms.
“In the past, as you know, this was a gray area, they can escape from putting a lot of things on a deliberate page, which will not be acceptable on the home page. So I think these provisions have reached a big gap there,” said Jess Tae, the leadership of the POM project in ASA.
The rulings also close the vulnerability that pharmacies announce to consult weight loss – allowed to be allowed – but is associated with the intended pages of these services that are only characterized by injection in weight loss as possible treatments.
“There must be a real option, or options, in which the professional will work with their patient, unlike a kind of symbolic consultation, as the two parties know what they are actually doing, ending with a strong blow that is sent by mail so that they can use it,” said Morgan. “
The influencers were also arrested in the new rulings: the complaint that I supported was one against the Instagram post by the character of the Gemma Collins TV, which promoted Yazen weight loss service.
The advertisement was found on the promotion of POMS because Collins indicated the use of NHS weight loss drug, and because the Yazan site also distinguishes links to three articles in the newspapers, with miniature images that described how Colines lost weight using “GLP-1 Leight Leang”.
Morgan said that the new rulings will determine precedents and provide guidelines for pharmacies, with more judgments to clarify the scene.
The prosperity in losing weight loss, and their promise not only to help people get rid of pounds but also to treat countless health conditions, has led to an explosion in online. The drug credibility has been strengthened with political approval.
This week, the Minister of Health, Wes Streeting, told Radio LBC: “Weight loss is talking about the House of Commons; half of my colleagues on them and judge our rest, saying:” You must be a lot. “
But while the street plans to expand the audience’s access to the strikes, which makes it available on a broader scale on NHS, many of them buy medicines through special recipes with pharmacies over the Internet, making them promoting profitable work.
The main question remains whether the new rulings will correct a lot of illegal sale, or whether advertisers will continue to break the rules – as some pharmacies were.
ASA said that the pharmacies that have found that the rules of advertising had been violated and instructed to remove or edit their advertisement. If the company fails to engage, the Control Authority may take measures, such as working with platforms to drop paid problems.
The violations of the Organizational Agency for Medicines and Health Care (MHRA) and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPHC), which have the power to apply penalties such as fines and court procedures, in the case of MHRA, or take action against the pharmacy, pharmacy owner, pharmacist, or all three in GPHC case.
However, Morgan said that compliance was good, rulings show that some online pharmacies did not respond to ASA when their ads were challenged.
Dr. Pyoter Osiraneski, from the University of Bath, welcomed the new rulings, but organizers must adopt a more aggressive position towards advertisers who found the division of rules, including the gradual financial penalties that could be linked to the company’s rotation, a scale or severity of patients’ risk.
He said: “This would bring the organization more in line with the seriousness of the damage to the test – not only the misleading declaration in this way, but its possible consequences for the safety of patients, continuity, and mental health.”
Oksana Bizik, Associate Professor of Pharmacy and Politics at the University of California College, also called for stronger action.
She said: “These provisions represent the naked minimum in dealing with how to upgrade POMS to lose weight by clearing the line between the advertising health care services against POMS,” noting that companies continued to break the rules, with some magic in weight loss through celebrity approvals on social media.