英国广告标准局（ASA）责令三家远程医疗公司撤下减肥广告，称这些广告误导了消费者。
The UK’s advertising authority ordered three telehealth companies to take down weight-loss ads that it says misled consumers.
Voy的一则大型广告曾铺满英国各地的城市公交车，广告中一只手握着一粒白色药丸，配文写着“体重结束了”，营造出该公司在宣传诺和诺德减肥重磅药Wegovy新款仅限处方的口服剂型的印象。
One major campaign from Voy was plastered across British city buses and featured a hand holding a white pill with the words, “the weight is over,” creating the impression that it was promoting the new prescription-only oral version of the obesity blockbuster Wegovy.
在广告下方的小字中，该公司澄清说，该产品实际上含有葡甘露聚糖，这是一种已存在数十年的食品添加剂和增稠剂，公司可以合法宣传这种成分。不过，当时Voy网站上也有Wegovy在售。
In small text below, the company clarified that the product actually contained glucomannan, a food additive and thickener that’s been around for decades, which it can legally promote. However, Wegovy was also available for purchase on the Voy website at the time.
“药品不一定要被点名，广告才会被理解为宣传处方药，”广告标准局调查经理凯瑟琳·德鲁伊特说。“小字中提及非药品产品，不一定会改变这种印象。”
“A medicine doesn’t need to be named for an ad to be understood as promoting a prescription-only medicine,” said Catherine Drewett, investigations manager at the Advertising Standards Authority. “References to a non-medicinal product in small print won’t necessarily change that impression.”
制药商和远程医疗公司一直在寻找搭乘肥胖药物热潮的途径，这一热潮正演变为一场全球消费者革命。但在英国和欧洲大部分地区，为处方药做广告是违法的——这是与美国的一个关键区别。
Drugmakers and telehealth companies have been looking for ways to ride the obesity drug boom as it turns into a global consumer revolution. But advertising prescription drugs is illegal in the UK and much of Europe — a crucial difference with the US.
据ASA称，Voy的广告“可能误导”消费者，使其认为该公司宣传的是丹麦制药商诺和诺德的口服Wegovy。
Voy’s campaign was “likely to mislead” consumers into thinking the company was advertising Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S‘s Wegovy pill, according to the ASA.
这款药丸在Voy广告活动开始前不久在英国获批。非上市的Voy由门威尔有限公司所有。
The pill was approved in the UK shortly before Voy’s ad campaign started. Closely held Voy is owned by Menwell Ltd.
监管机构表示，禁令还包括美国公司Hims & Hers Health Inc.旗下Juniper和HeliosX旗下MedExpress的广告，两家公司均宣传了未点名的口服减肥处方药。
The ban also includes ads from Juniper, owned by US firm Hims & Hers Health Inc., and HeliosX’s MedExpress, which both promoted oral weight-loss prescription medicines without naming them, the regulator said.
Voy表示，正全力配合ASA，并已撤下广告。MedExpress表示，在完成内部审查程序后，也已撤下广告。
Voy said it’s fully cooperating with the ASA and has already pulled the ads. MedExpress said it had done the same following its own internal review process.
私营服务提供商（如远程医疗公司）在英国获取新一代肥胖症治疗方面发挥了关键作用，因为这些治疗很难通过国家医疗服务体系（NHS）获得。
Private providers like telehealth firms have been key to gaining access to the new generation of obesity treatments in the UK, where they are difficult to get through the National Health Service.
根据伦敦大学学院研究人员于2025年初收集的数据，英国近十分之一的人使用过减肥药。
Almost one in 10 people in the UK have used a weight-loss drug, according to data collected in early 2025 by researchers at University College London.
专注于体重管理的Juniper在YouTube上写道：“减肥药丸来了”，并宣称了该药物的疗效和适用人群。与此同时，MedExpress通过Instagram广告推广“新型减肥药片”和“无需针剂”。这两家公司以及Voy过去都曾因广告宣称受到监管机构的严厉谴责。
Juniper, which focuses on weight management, wrote on YouTube that “The weight loss pill is here” and included claims about results and eligibility for the medicine. MedExpress, meanwhile, prompted “New weight loss tablets” and “No needles” via Instagram ads. Both companies have been castigated by the regulator over advertising claims in the past, as has Voy.
该机构今年早些时候委托开展的消费者研究发现，患者会通过包括图像在内的多种信号来解读减肥广告，而不仅仅是药品名称。
Consumer research commissioned by the agency earlier this year found that patients will interpret weight-loss ads through a variety of signals including imagery — not just the name of a medicine.
英国广告标准局（ASA）表示，它还在使用一款AI工具，配合药品监管机构在网上检测更多此类广告。
The ASA said it is also using an AI tool to detect more of these s online, in coordination with drug regulators.
Simple Online Pharmacy和Pharmacy Online的其他广告因宣传Wegovy等口服药物，并在药品获批在英国上市前邀请人们加入候补名单，于上月被ASA禁播。
Other ads from Simple Online Pharmacy and Pharmacy Online were banned last month by the ASA for advertising oral drugs like Wegovy and inviting people to join waitlists before the medicines were approved in the UK.