STAT+: Pharmalittle: Novo Nordisk spent $11 million on doctors to promote Ozempic and similar drugs; China offers foreign drugmakers an olive branch
Novo Nordisk paid for meals and travel for thousands of doctors to promote Ozempic and other weight loss-inducing diabetes drugs.
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Novo Nordisk spent $11 million on meals and travel for thousands of doctors last year, federal records show, as part of its push to promote Ozempic and other weight loss-inducing diabetes drugs, STAT writes. The company bought more than 457,000 meals to educate doctors and other prescribers about its portfolio of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Nearly 12,000 prescribers had food paid for by the company more than a dozen times last year. And more than 200 prescribers recorded more than 50 meals and snacks paid for by Novo Nordisk. One doctor, who is a frequent speaker for the company, recorded 193.
With some states enacting abortion bans and others enshrining protections and expanding access to birth control, vending machines are part of a push on college campuses to ensure emergency contraceptives are cheap, discreet, and widely available, the Associated Press tells us. There are now 39 universities in 17 states with emergency contraceptive vending machines, and at least 20 more considering them, according to the American Society for Emergency Contraception. Some, such as the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, are in states where abortion is largely banned. Over-the-counter purchase of Plan B and generic forms is legal in all 50 states.
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