‘Orchestrated PR campaign’: how skinny jab drug firm sought to shape obesity debate
During a prime-time breakfast slot on BBC Radio 4 last week, a leading obesity expert sang the praises of a blockbuster new weight-loss treatment.
The appetite-suppressing Wegovy injections were “one of the most powerful pharmaceutical tools” to date for treating obesity, Prof Jason Halford told the nation.
The problem, he said, would be ensuring enough people could get hold of them.
Halford’s comments were broadcast on the Today programme to millions. But what was not disclosed was that, in addition to his academic work at Leeds University, he is president of an obesity organisation largely funded by the manufacturer of the jabs. Between 2019 and 2021, the European Association for the Study of Obesity received more than £3.65m from Novo Nordisk – equivalent to more than three quarters of its total declared income for that period. Halford was also a previous adviser to the Danish drug maker, sitting on a UK advisory board.
Halford’s financial links to the pharmaceutical company are not a one-off. An Observer investigation this weekend details the millions of pounds paid by the company to experts and organisations in donations, event sponsorship, healthcare training programmes, charity projects, consultancy fees and other payments in advance of its getting approval for use on the NHS.
The 3,500-plus transactions are separate from the company’s spending on research and development, and amounted to more than £21.7m in just three years.
There is now concern about what one expert described as an “orchestrated PR campaign” by the drug company as it sought to shape the obesity debate. It has already been reprimanded by the UK’s pharmaceutical watchdog over breaches of the industry code for another weight-loss drug.
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