Episode Details

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In Part 1 we talked about how Novo Nordisk got suspended from The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry for their shady marketing practices. Today, we’re going to talk about an investigation by The Observer that found what so many of us have been saying for a looooong time - that Novo Nordisk had paid millions to prominent ob*sity “charities,” NHS trusts, universities and other bodies as well healthcare professionals who publicly praised the drug (typically without disclosure of their funding) and who advised NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) on their reviewing of Novo’s weight loss drug to decide whether or not it should be made available.

The Observer article by Shanti Das and Jon Ungoes-Thomas “‘Orchestrated PR campaign’: how skinny jab drug firm sought to shape ob*sity debate” (Note: per my policy I’m not linking to it because it still comes from a place of weight stigma) found that in three years, Novo Nordisk had shelled out £21,700,000 (about $26,415,301.50 USD) over 3,500 transactions which were separate from their research and development spending.

The Observer found:

“The payments include donations, event sponsorship, grants and other fees to prominent ob*sity charities, NHS trusts, royal colleges, GP surgeries, healthcare education providers and universities - on top of £28m spent by the company on research and development. A further £4m in payments such as consulting and lecture fees went to health professionals, including experts on ob*sity. The business has also provided financial support for the running of the all-party parliamentary group on ob*sity - a cross party group of MPs and members of the Lords that lobbies the government on health policy.”

I’ve written before about how major papers like the New York Times are writing articles that are, essentially, lobbying for Novo Nordisk’s priorities where every expert quoted is on Novo’s payroll with no disclosure. One question I get asked a lot is “how is that legal?” First I’ll point out that legal and ethical are two different things. Beyond that, there is a tendency to believe that doctors and academics are somehow immune to industry influence (or to the ways that their promotion of the weight loss paradigm will support their careers) such that reporters and others (including those on the pharma industry’s payroll) claim that disclosing these conflicts of interest isn’t important.

An excellent example of the ways in which those who are seen as “impartial” experts in academia are, in fact, on the payroll of these companies and actively shilling for them is Professor John Wilding. Professor Wilding is at Liverpool University, where he leads clinical research on “ob*sity.” He also serves as president of the “World Ob*sity Federation” (an astroturf organization similar to the Ob*sity Action Coalition) which took more than £4.3M over three years, per The Observer. Somehow, this did not make its way onto his conflicts of interest statement. Meanwhile, he was quoted extensively in the media recommending Novo’s drug Wegovy.

Jason Halford, who is the Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Leeds, told an audience of millions on BBC that Wegovy is “one of the most powerful pharmaceutical tools” for treating “ob*sity.” He did not disclose that he is also the president of the Euro