Advertising spending on weight loss and diabetes drugs tops $1 billion

On March 8, 2024, a pharmacy in London, England sold boxed Wegovy produced by Novo Nordisk.

Holly Adams | Reuters

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Good afternoon! Drugmakers spent heavily last year on advertising for weight loss and diabetes treatments in a bid to dominate the booming markets for these drugs.

The latest data from advertising analytics company MediaRadar shows that companies will spend more than $1 billion on advertising for weight loss and diabetes drugs in 2023, a 51% increase from the previous year. That’s nearly 15% of the $7.6 billion drugmakers spent on prescription drug advertising last year.

Diabetes treatments accounted for nearly $790 million in ad spending in 2023, while weight loss drugs accounted for nearly $264 million.

So why is this data important?Such a surge in spending shows companies are eager to attract new customers after months of hype Novo NordiskDiabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss drug Wegovy. Although the drugs cost about $1,000 and have limited insurance coverage, demand has surged.

MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman told CNBC that Wegovy and Ozempic “have been at the forefront of the advertising space, with recognition from public figures and consistent media exposure, which has helped increase overall spending and required increased advertising investment to capture and expand market share. .”

Preliminary data for this year suggest that ad spending on weight loss and diabetes drugs is not slowing down.

Drugmakers have spent nearly $120 million on advertising these treatments through the first two months of 2024, according to MediaRadar. This number was slightly lower than the same period last year due to factors such as “prescription changes”, but still accounted for 10% of overall prescription advertising expenditures in January and February.

“We expect ad spend in the diabetes and weight loss categories to remain strong or even increase as brands work to capitalize on growing markets and demand,” Krizelman said.

Now, let’s dig a little deeper into the data.

MediaRadar calculated ad spending across national television broadcasts, print publications, newspapers and websites, podcasts and social media platforms between January 1, 2022 and February 29, 2024.

The company identified six weight loss and diabetes drugs that drove ad spending last year:

Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic—an injectable treatment for type 2 diabetes
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy—obesity injection
Novo Nordisk’s Rybelsus—a drug to treat type 2 diabetes
Monzaro from Eli Lilly and Company — Type 2 Diabetes Injections
Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance – a drug to treat type 2 diabetes
fasiga from AstraZeneca — Medications to treat type 2 diabetes

According to MediaRadar, Wegovy will spend $263 million on advertising in 2023, a figure that cannot be compared to the same period last year since the drug was approved in 2022. Novo Nordisk also suspended some of Wegovy’s key promotions in May, notably local and national television ads.

Ozempic spent $208 million on advertising last year, up just 4% from the previous year.

Mounjaro’s ad spend was $139 million, a 16-fold increase from 2022.

Here’s a look at the ad spend rankings for these six drugs:

Wegovy: $263 million
Ozempic: $208 million
Rebelsus: $199 million
Jardines: $148 million
Monzaro: $139 million
Farsiga: $68 million

MediaRadar says national television is definitely the preferred format for advertising weight loss and diabetes drugs so far in 2024. The company did not provide detailed data on ad formats last year.

In the first two months of this year, drugmakers directed 88% or more of their ad spending on television for Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Jardiance and Farxiga.

Rebelsus is an exception. MediaRadar said Novo Nordisk spent 63% of Rybelsus ad spend on online video, despite reducing investment in the format compared with 2023.

Kriezelman said the shift toward TV ad spending is due to its “broader reach and ability” to target patients more likely to be affected by diabetes and obesity. He added that TV advertising “has a higher impact in terms of trust and credibility” than online channels.

This year, I plan to monitor spending on Eli Lilly and Company’s new obesity treatment, Zepbound. The drug was approved in the United States in November, and some analysts say it could eventually become the best-selling drug of all time.

Stay tuned for more coverage of this drug and similar treatments later this year.

Please feel free to send Annika any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data: annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

Latest Healthcare Technology

FDA approves first artificial intelligence diagnostic tool for sepsis

A sign outside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, on August 29, 2020.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

It’s a big day for health tech startup Prenosis.

The 10-year-old Chicago-based company announced Wednesday that its artificial intelligence-powered sepsis diagnostic tool has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is the first time the agency has authorized such a solution.

Sepsis occurs when the body has an extreme reaction to an infection. It is very difficult to diagnose and often fatal. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1.7 million adults in the United States develop sepsis each year, and one-third of patients who die in a hospital develop sepsis while in the hospital.

Prenosis’ tool, called the Sepsis Immune Score, uses 22 different parameters to help clinicians assess a patient’s risk of developing sepsis, according to a press release. While doctors and nurses are typically responsible for monitoring these factors individually, the Sepsis Immune Score uses artificial intelligence to assess all factors at once.

The tool gives an overall risk score, as well as four categories that reflect a patient’s risk of worsening, the release said. The sepsis immune score is integrated into the electronic health record so clinicians can see exactly which parameters were used to calculate the risk score.

In 2022, the FDA updated the company’s guidance and gave some examples of device software capabilities it intends to regulate. The agency said software that “analyzes patient-specific medical information to detect life-threatening conditions such as stroke or sepsis” falls into this category.

Prenosis told CNBC that while it could have brought its solution directly to market, like other companies like healthcare software provider Epic Systems, it did not want to try to sell a sepsis immune score without FDA authorization. The company said the approval process will take approximately 18 months.

Prenosis will now conduct more studies and begin selling the product to hospitals across the United States. Eventually, the company hopes its technology will appear in hospitals around the world.