Weight-loss promoters are reeling after TikTok crackdown

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the impact of TikTok's new guidelines that prohibit users from marketing weight-loss products on the platform's weight-loss community. It explores how the changes are disrupting the commercial ecosystem around GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, which have become popular for their weight-loss effects. The article also examines the regulatory challenges around influencers promoting prescription drugs on social media and the rise of compounded versions of these medications.

🙋 Q&A

[01] TikTok's New Guidelines on Weight-Loss Products

1. What are the key points of TikTok's new guidelines on weight-loss products?

• TikTok has announced new guidelines that prohibit users from marketing weight-loss products on the platform.
• The guidelines are intended to block body-shaming imagery and related harmful messages.
• The new rules do not allow "facilitating the trade or marketing of weight loss or muscle gain products," but do allow "showing or describing" what TikTok calls "medically necessary health interventions" under the care of a healthcare professional.

2. How are the new guidelines impacting TikTok's weight-loss community?

• The guidelines are disrupting the commercial ecosystem around GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, which have become popular for their weight-loss effects.
• Many weight-loss influencers are trying to shift their TikTok followers to other platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Clapper.
• Some influencers are trying to talk about weight-loss products in more coded language to avoid having their posts removed.

3. What are the concerns around TikTok's new guidelines?

• There is ambiguity in the guidelines, as they allow "showing or describing" medically necessary health interventions but don't provide clear definitions.
• Some experts believe the guidelines can be protective, particularly for young users, but others argue that "wiping out everyone's voices is not a great way to handle it."

[02] Regulatory Challenges around Influencers Promoting Prescription Drugs

1. What are the regulatory challenges around influencers promoting prescription drugs on social media?

• The practice of boosting prescription drugs to consumers on social media falls into murky regulatory territory.
• Influencers are not always giving consumers a full picture of the risks of the drugs, which are injected.
• Many influencers are using their own weight-loss experiences to promote GLP-1 drugs that are imitations of brand-name versions, made by compounding pharmacies and prescribed by telehealth companies.

2. How are regulators and companies responding to these issues?

• The FDA has targeted drug manufacturers, rather than influencers or social media platforms, for misleading drug promotions.
• Drugmakers like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have sued several compounding pharmacies for making copies of their GLP-1 drugs.
• However, numerous clinics and telehealth firms continue to offer pharmacy-made weight-loss drugs for a fraction of the cost of the brand-name medications.

[03] The Rise of Compounded GLP-1 Medications

1. What is the role of compounded GLP-1 medications in the weight-loss community on TikTok?

• Many in the TikTok weight-loss community have found off-brand versions of GLP-1 drugs made by compounding pharmacies, which mix up their own injectable weight-loss drugs.
• Compounding pharmacies are permitted to make copies of FDA-approved drugs that the agency lists in shortage, as is the case for the most popular GLP-1 medications on the market.
• These compounded versions are often offered by clinics and telehealth firms for a lower cost than the brand-name medications.

2. What are the concerns around the use of compounded GLP-1 medications?

• The FDA has cautioned that it can't vouch for the safety or effectiveness of compounded semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy.
• Some healthcare providers, like the doctor Jennah Siwak, are not comfortable with the use of compounded GLP-1 drugs.
• However, many in the TikTok weight-loss community continue to promote and use these compounded versions due to their lower cost.