As a Zepbound patient, here are the seven reforms I’d like to see
I highlight two:
“2. Tighter oversight of manufacturers’ pricing policies and the competitive environment
[..] it’s a bit rich (pun intended) for [Lilly CEO Dave] Ricks [whose total compensation was $114 million in 2024 after the company made more than $10 billion in profit last year] to complain about telehealth/compounding pharmacies like Hims & Hers offering cheaper “backdoor generics” of GLP-1s. (Note to Congress: Rather than permitting the Food and Drug Administration to stop the work of compounding pharmacies on GLP-1s — a throttling that is now well underway — please devise a thoughtful generics strategy that prioritizes product availability, quality, patient safety, and an appropriate reward for innovator companies in equal measure.)
3. Tighter oversight of promotional strategies.
[..] Gaping regulatory loopholes allow a telehealth company like Ro to promote Lilly’s Zepbound, without being required to convey adequate patient safety and side-effect information. Why? [..]
Hims’ short-lived attempt to collaborate with Novo Nordisk on GLP-1s recently ended in disaster. But that had nothing to do with federal oversight — it appears to have been more about Novo concluding it could not control and expand its GLP-1 market via Hims. Again, why?
Federal oversight of Big Pharma cozying up to telehealth companies needs to be far more robust; Right now, it’s practically nonexistent, though there is a group of senators who are doggedly working to change that.
GLP-1s are serious medications with certain potential toxicities for some patients, including pancreatitis, thyroid cancer, and — very rarely, but now officially acknowledged in the case of Wegovy — blindness, caused by a condition called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). Advertising for GLP-1s, therefore, should be carefully regulated and revised as needed, prior to airing across national media and social platforms. There is a bipartisan legislative effort in the Senate that could help address this one component of federal oversight; it remains to be seen how it will fare in the current Congress.”
Full article, G Hart, STAT, 2025.8.1