More than 300 hospital consultants, general practitioners, nurses, academics and other healthcare professionals received payments or expenses last year from Novo Nordisk, the company behind new obesity drug Ozempic.
The Danish pharmaceutical company has seen its profits soar following huge demand for its new obesity treatments, which have also been promoted as “miracle” weight-loss drugs by celebrities and social media influencers.
Figures disclosed by the company show in total it paid Irish healthcare staff €446,000 last year in fees for sponsored talks, consultancy work or to cover travel expenses, as its new drugs gained popularity.
The company paid a further €250,000 to universities, hospitals or other organisations in grants or donations.
Talks or seminars sponsored by drug companies, often delivered by experts in a certain field, are usually aimed at helping frontline health professionals keep abreast of recent research or developments. They are governed by strict guidelines to make sure the talks do not advertise specific prescription drug brands.
The payments from Novo Nordisk to Irish healthcare professionals are detailed in a register published by the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (Ipha), who represent the pharma industry.
The register shows the majority of healthcare staff received fees or expenses of several hundred euros, up to nearly €10,000 in some cases, with two obesity experts, Prof Carel Le Roux and Dr Michael Crotty, receiving significantly more.
The highest paid individual was Prof Le Roux, an expert on obesity in University College Dublin, who received more than €50,000 from the drug manufacturer last year.
Prof Le Roux said he received fees for his roles on the advisory boards of numerous pharmaceutical companies.
The St Vincent’s hospital consultant said he did not want Novo Nordisk or any rival company to grow their share of the current market, but to “grow the market”. He said this would mean more people with obesity got treatments they needed, whether that was surgery, medication or otherwise.
“What you are never allowed to do is advertise the medication. I am the worst salesperson in the world ... I am not in anybody’s pocket,” he told The Irish Times.
He had sought to shift the company’s thinking to view its new treatments as drugs for obesity rather than “weight-loss medications”, he said.
The second highest paid healthcare professional was Dr Crotty, a GP who runs a Blackrock-based weight management clinic, My Best Weight, who received €40,000 from Novo Nordisk last year.
Dr Crotty said he was “fully transparent” about the payments, which were for work giving talks and producing educational materials for other healthcare professionals.
His weight clinic, set up with Prof Le Roux about two and a half years ago, discussed “all treatment options” with patients, he said.
Dr Crotty said he had given “dozens” of talks to healthcare staff about the stigma of obesity, including a large number on a pro bono basis.
The pair disclose their links to Novo Nordisk on the clinic’s website. “We’re not in the pocket of big pharma, that’s why we have to be so transparent,” Dr Crotty said.
“We’re also trying to keep industry geared towards the patient ... I’m trying to influence the pharmaceutical company, it’s a two-way street,” he said.
While 228 healthcare professionals paid by Novo Nordisk consented to have their names published on the Ipha register, 107 requested their identities be kept anonymous.
Dr Crotty said it should be “mandatory” for all healthcare staff who received payments to be named on the register.
A spokesman for the company said it was committed to “complete transparency” in its engagements with doctors and other health professionals.
“Novo Nordisk’s ultimate goal is to improve the lives of people living with chronic disease, and collaboration with the medical community is essential to the achievement of this aim,” he said.
It worked with the medical community “to gather and disseminate expert advice”, for which professionals were compensated “according to fair market value”, he said.
One nurse who attended a recent talk sponsored by Novo Nordisk said they had “put on a night” in a hotel, covering the accommodation costs of attendees and including a complimentary dinner and lunch.
Several hospital consultants also received significant sums or expenses from the company, figures show.
Dr Conor Woods, a consultant endocrinologist in Naas General Hospital, was paid €9,773 by Novo Nordisk last year, which he said mainly covered travel expenses to attend an obesity conference in the United States.
Dr Tommy Tun, a consultant in Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, was paid €8,916 last year, between travel expenses and speaking fees.
Ozempic: the reality of the ‘miracle’ weight-loss jab
Dr Tun, a diabetes specialist, said the parameters of talks he delivered were “very strict” and were not advertisements for any product. “I wouldn’t decide to speak if I felt I wouldn’t be able to have the freedom to speak unbiased,” he said.
Novo Nordisk also made significant donations and grants to universities and hospitals, largely to fund research into obesity treatment or diabetes.
The Mater hospital received €33,000 for diabetes research last year, while the company gave grants of €35,000 to Trinity College Dublin and €20,000 to University of Galway.
Novo Nordisk was suspended from the UK’s pharma industry body earlier this year, as the nature of its sponsorship of a weight management course for health professionals breached a code of practice.
The Ipha, the Irish industry body, said it had received no complaints of breaches of its code of practice about Novo Nordisk in the past two years.
The company’s main problem is not that of getting GPs or other professionals on board with advances in obesity treatments, but that it cannot produce enough of its drugs to meet demand.
As a result, there has been a major shortage of Ozempic, its type 2 diabetes drug also prescribed for obesity, as well as obesity drug Saxenda, while its other weight-loss brand, Wegovy, is not yet available in Ireland.
The Health Products Regulatory Authority last week issued a fresh warning to Irish doctors and pharmacists, asking that no new patients be started on Ozempic this month.
Novo Nordisk told Irish regulators they hoped supplies would improve from October, but the authority said it expected shortages would continue into next year.
The current supply difficulties, leading some pharmacies to reserve Ozempic exclusively for diabetes patients, was causing “huge stress” to obesity patients prescribed the medication, Dr Crotty said.
One Dublin GP described the new appetite-suppressing drugs as “pharmaceutical heaven” for the manufacturer, given the need for patients to potentially take the regular injections for life.
The company has other drugs in the pipeline, such as cagrilintide, which a 2021 study co-authored by Prof Le Roux found worked for obesity patients. The trials and study, published in the Lancet journal, were funded by Novo Nordisk.
Originally an insulin producer known for its diabetes drugs, the discovery that some also worked for weight loss, such as Ozempic, has seen Novo Nordisk’s profits soar. Its surging share price recently saw it listed as Europe’s most valuable company.
While it dominates the market at present, competitors such as US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly are seeking to catch up with their own weight-loss treatments under development.
Novo Nordisk’s presence in Ireland has doubled in recent years, with more than 50 staff now working in its office in Santry, north Dublin.
It has plans to expand further and build a pharmaceutical plant in Clondalkin, southwest Dublin. South Dublin County Council agreed to sell 85 acres of land for the planned facility to the company for about €50 million, at a council meeting this June.
It has just rolled out Wegovy to the UK, with a spokesman saying it was working to make the drug available in the Republic “as soon as possible”.
