Telehealth company Hims & Hers’s 60-second Super Bowl ad has been criticized by health experts and lawmakers for potentially “misleading patients,” according to a letter written by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Roger Marshall on Friday morning.
The pair called on acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner to “take enforcement action” against the ad, which they allege “may mislead patients” about the company’s products. They note that the Super Bowl spot doesn’t disclose side effects—such as pancreas issues, vomiting, and diarrhea—risks, or safety information, which is required in pharma advertising.
“Further, for only three seconds during the minute-long commercial does the screen flash in small, barely legible font, that these products are not FDA-approved,” the letter reads.
Advocacy group the Partnership for Safe Medicines, also released a letter to the FDA on Feb. 5 critiquing the ad for promoting unapproved drugs and providing misleading or inaccurate information. The group similarly urged the FDA to stop the ad from running.
“The commercial is blatantly misleading, and poses a substantial risk of harming the approximately 200 million consumers that will see the commercial during Super Bowl LIX. And while this is likely the most egregious example of misleading advertising by compounders, recent academic research highlights that deception is commonplace among those who market compounded weight loss drugs,” the letter reads.
Wait—back up a second. Hims & Hers began selling its own GLP-1 weight loss drug in May, and it is made of similar ingredients as brand-name drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, Healthcare Brew previously reported.
The ad, which is Hims & Hers’s first Super Bowl spot, is titled “Sick of the System” and shows injectables, pills, and people eating junk food—and criticizes the weight loss industry. However, the ad doesn’t specifically mention any drug by name.
In response, a Hims & Hers spokesperson reportedly said in a statement shared with CNBC: “We are complying with existing law and are happy to continue working with Congress and the new administration to fix the broken health system.”
As of publication, there is no plan to pull the ad from Sunday’s game, Modern Healthcare reports.
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