Nonprofit group the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) is running a new challenge as part of its “Your Weight Matters” campaign—and it’s got some big-name backers to help.
Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim and Currax are all supporting the OAC’s public service announcement (PSA) looking to get Americans to talk with their doctors and HCPs about their weight.
“We know talking about weight can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be,” said James Zervios, OAC VP and COO, in a press release. “The PSA empowers people to start that dialogue and equips them with the tools and support they need for their health journey.”
The initiative works as an offshoot of the “Your Weight Matters” campaign in the form of a challenge: Go to the OAC’s new site here, sign up to the campaign and get a toolkit designed to help patients struggling with their weight to talk to their doctor.
The PSA comes with a new 1-minute video that sees a family outside eating healthily and being active. In the video, a narrator says that while you have been making positive changes, she asks: “Do you feel that your weight is holding you back?”
Two parents are seen struggling to keep up playing with their child but then the father finds the OAC’s challenge on his phone and can access the toolkit. We then see the parents in their doctor’s office talking with their physician, something the narrator says “is not always easy, but we’re here to help you know your options.”
There is no direct mention of drugs or drug therapy for weight loss but the pharmas involved had a vested interest in selling obesity products. No more so than Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which market new therapies Zepbound and Wegovy for obesity (among others), respectively. Both drugs are on course to be megablockbuster products in the coming years.
Currax also markets several older weight-loss meds. Amgen and Boehringer, meanwhile, are currently working on new anti-obesity drugs but are still in trials.
Though not expressed by the OAC or the companies, the implicit understanding of these doctor conversations is the hope that they will be offered anti-obesity medications and up prescribing of the drugs in general.
The OAC did not say how much, or if at all, the pharmas are paying to “fuel the support” for the campaign, as the organization puts it, or detail their involvement in its creation.