A 13-minute segment on a recent episode of CBS 60 minutes appeared to be a news story about Wegovy, Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug, but was actually a sponsored promotion that violated federal regulations, according to the nonprofit public health advocacy group, the Physicians Committee.
The group filed a complaint with the Food and Drug Administration last week, arguing that the segment, which began on March 1,
FDA Fair Balance Requirement
. This law requires drug advertising to properly balance the risks and benefits of a drug.
The medical committee claims that CBS 60 minutes received advertising payments from Novo Nordisk prior to the reporting and that the broadcast segment contained only experts who had also been paid by Novo Nordisk. The segment praised the drug, using words and phrases like “highly effective,” “safe,” “impressive,” “fabulous,” and “robust,” but didn’t elaborate on side effects or alternative weight-loss treatments and strategies.
“The 60 Minutes program looked like a news article, but it was actually a drug advertisement,” Physician Committee President Neal Barnard, associate professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine, said in a statement. He noted that Wegovy has a number of potential risks and side effects not mentioned in CBS’s coverage, such as digestive problems, increased heart rate, gallstones, pancreatitis, and severe drops in blood sugar. The drug also poses risks for people who are pregnant or may become pregnant.
The group is seeking to remove all of CBS’s Wegovy-related stories — there are four — from their sites and place a “corrective ad” in their place that includes risks and side effects.
In a statement to the media, Novo Nordisk said:
Novo Nordisk has not paid or sponsored CBS in any way 60 minutes for their coverage of obesity as part of a news segment that aired January 1, 2023, and we have not controlled the content or played any role in identifying or selecting the physicians and patients featured in the news segment.
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