Online pharmacies ran 'illegal and irresponsible' weight loss pill ads before drugs were even approved, watchdog rules

From the Newshound archive · first published 7 October 2026 · last updated 8 October 2026.

The Advertising Standards Authority has issued its first-ever bans on oral weight loss medicine ads, ruling that Simple Online Pharmacy promoted GLP-1 pills before any had received UK regulatory approval, inviting customers to 'join the waitlist' for an unlicensed treatment. Pharmacy Online was also banned for advertising the oral Wegovy tablet once it had secured a prescription-only licence — a classification that itself prohibits direct public advertising. Three further firms, MedExpress, Juniper and Care Pharmacy, faced rulings for marketing prescription-only medicines without specifying which products were involved.

Under UK advertising rules, medicines must be MHRA-authorised before promotion and prescription-only drugs cannot be marketed directly to the public.

The ASA determined that consumers could identify an ad as promoting weight loss medication without any product name being mentioned.

The watchdog warned it will continue monitoring ads as demand for GLP-1 drugs surges following their celebrity-fuelled explosion in popularity.