The marketing case concerning Novo Nordisk’s sponsorship of an independent Danish patient organization, Adipositasforeningen (”The Association of Severe Obesity”), now lands itself in front of Danish Minister for Health Sophie Løhde. 

Parliamentarian Peder Hvelplund has asked three questions under Paragraph 20, which gives members of parliament a pathway to learn ministers’ opinions about specific matters. 

This all started when Danish investigative media Frihedsbrevet (”The Letter of Freedom”) described how a video appearing on Danish pharmacies’ website regarding obesity contained a video produced by Adipositasforeningen, though it was not readily apparent that the organization has financial ties to Novo Nordisk, maker of weight-loss drugs like Saxenda and Wegovy. In 2021 and 2022, the Danish drugmaker gave Adipositasforeningen DKK 750,000 (USD 109,000) to lead a campaign for obesity treatment. 

”Is it the opinion of the minister that Adipositasforeningen is an independent patient group in light of how a large portion of its financing comes from Novo Nordisk?” asks Hvelplund as one of his three questions.

Kicked out

In the original article, Lars Otto Andersen-Lange, media relations director at Novo Nordisk, rejected the notion that Novo Nordisk had made any ethics violations to Frihedsbrevet.

”Novo Nordisk Denmark is fully transparent and has, in compliance with rules, informed of its sponsorship of Adipositasforeningen. However, we can see that Adipositasforeningen hasn’t fully disclosed this in all its materials,” writes Andersen-Lange.

On Wednesday, however, Denmark’s Ethical Committee for the Pharmaceutical Industry, or ENLI, which determines the playing rules for companies in the sector, said it was taking up the case, beginning with a hearing of Novo Nordisk. The Danish drugmaker now has until mid-April to produce materials related to the case.

The ethics committee has the power to impose sanctions against a member pharmaceutical company that breaches its rules. These actions include fines as high as DKK 300,000 (USD 43,700), other charges, and public reprimands. 

Earlier this month, the UK Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) suspended the Danish drugmaker’s membership for two years for marketing violations. A post on LinkedIn from a clinical training provider to health professionals inviting them to a weight-loss webinar had not made Novo Nordisk’s sponsorship of the event apparent.

The Novo Nordisk spokesperson has denied that the two cases can be directly compared, saying the situation with Adipositasforeningen concerns a ”sponsorship of a patient organization.”

Six business days

Hvelplund says the marketing matter on Danish soil raises more general questions about the pharmaceutical industry’s support to patient groups, precisely because the latter receives grants from the former.

”Is it the opinion of the minister that there should be limits on how much financing patient groups can receive from the industry?” is another question that Løhde must now answer.

She has six business days to respond as stipulated by Paragraph 20.