ASA Bans Advertising by Five UK Online Pharmacies Over Weight-Loss Drugs
The UK's ASA has banned advertising by five online pharmacies that promoted prescription weight-loss drugs to a mass audience. Over the year, the regulator checked 95,000 online ads, a third of them about weight management.
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has issued rulings against five online pharmacies for promoting prescription weight-loss drugs to a mass audience. The restrictions affect Simple Online Pharmacy, The Care Pharmacy, Juniper, MedExpress and Pharmacyonline.
The substance of the complaints
In the UK, there is a direct ban on advertising prescription medicines to the general public. The restriction covers not only brand names but also characteristic phrasing — such as "weight loss injections," "weight loss pen," or "obesity treatment shots."
The Care Pharmacy placed a card in Google search results featuring an image of a syringe, the caption Weight Loss Solution and a price. After clicking, users were asked to confirm they were of age, after which a page with descriptions of the drugs opened. ASA concluded that the ad effectively promoted a prescription drug, despite its name not appearing in the original ad. The "adults only" label did not soften the decision.
Other cases:
- Simple Online Pharmacy offered pre-registration to receive drugs before they were approved in the UK;
- Pharmacyonline advertised Wegovy pills and opened pre-orders;
- Juniper promoted the drugs on Google;
- MedExpress ran similar ads on Facebook*.
How advertisers circumvent the restrictions
Advertisers have shifted the emphasis from drugs to a service. Ads began featuring wording like "weight management consultations" and "medicated weight loss programs." Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, launched a campaign under the slogan Make Life Gains, focused on improving health and physical activity. The publication More About Advertising counts it among examples of indirect promotion of weight-loss drugs.
Another case is outdoor advertising for the online platform Voy on British buses with the slogan The Weight Is Over. The phrase plays on the expression "The wait is over" and is linked to the arrival of oral GLP-1 drugs. The campaign drew criticism on social media, but ASA allowed it. Under the regulator's rules, mere resemblance to drug advertising does not constitute a violation — the deciding factor is whether the ad promotes a specific prescription drug to a mass audience.
The scale of monitoring
ASA has stepped up automated monitoring of online advertising. From February 2025 to January 2026, the authority analyzed more than 95,000 unique online ads. Around 35,000 of them — nearly 37% — were related to weight management services. In 2025, ASA also issued separate guidance for advertisers in this category, yet new cases show that violations continue.
Weight-loss drugs remain a prominent topic in British public debate. They are discussed not only in healthcare but also in the context of consumer habits, beauty standards and food sales.
What this means for the Russian market
In Russia, advertising prescription drugs to a mass audience is also banned. Under the federal law "On Advertising," their promotion is permitted only in professional formats — at medical and pharmaceutical events and in specialized print publications.
The Russian regulator has also raised objections to the promotion of such drugs. In 2025, the FAS fined the pharmaceutical company Geropharm 200,000 rubles for advertising a prescription drug during a music event. The case coincided in time with British practice and confirmed a general trend: control over indirect promotion of prescription drugs is tightening on both sides of the regulatory divide.
Original: asa.org.uk
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