Over a recent two-year period, Novo Nordisk spent an estimated $7.5 million on more than 15,000 paid keywords related to weight loss searches and generated more than 2.4 million visits to Ozempic.com, even though the medicine is not approved to combat obesity, a new analysis found.
Notably, more than 3,500 keywords contained no mention of the medicine, which is approved to treat diabetes, including misspellings of the drug name. Meanwhile, nearly $500,000 was spent by the company on weight loss-related terms, such as “Ozempic for weight loss” and “Ozempic weight loss,” according to the analysis published Friday in JAMA.
The researchers contended that this is a form of digital marketing that has not been previously documented and, moreover, that the findings underscore how pharmaceutical companies can influence consumer behavior and “potentially circumvent traditional advertising regulations through strategic keyword purchasing.”
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