Wegovy outspends TV advertisers in June ahead of more weight-loss competition

livemint.com:

The weight-loss drug Wegovy has been bombarding TV commercial breaks with ads, more than a year after its manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, limited starter-dose supplies in the U.S. to get a handle on demand. An ad titled “Discover the Power," part of a national advertising campaign called “The Power of Wegovy" that was announced in June, aired 6,271 times on national traditional TV between June 3 and June 25, according to TV ad-tracking firm iSpot.tv.

The commercial was the third most viewed on TV during that period, with nearly 2 billion household TV ad impressions, iSpot said. Only ads from fast-food chain Burger King and auto-glass-replacement company Safelite AutoGlass were seen more times. Buying national airtime to run “Discover the Power" cost an estimated $42 million, more than was spent to run any other ad, iSpot said.

Ads for Ozempic—another of Novo Nordisk’s medicines, but one that’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating Type 2 diabetes—in comparison aired 1,417 times between June 3 and June 25. Last year, Ozempic ads aired 24,513 times on national linear TV, while Wegovy ads didn’t run at all, according to iSpot data. The Wegovy blitz came after an FDA-approved update to the label for Wegovy, which included the removal of body mass index ranges for people who might take the drug for weight loss and the addition of an indication to reduce cardiovascular risk for those who are obese or overweight with heart disease.