Did 60 Minutes Run a Pay for Play Story? *

A recent episode of CBS's 60 Minutes has come under fire for allegedly violating federal regulations on drug advertisements. The 13-minute segment, which aired on January 1, 2023, appeared to be a news story on Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy, but was actually a sponsored promotion, according to the nonprofit public health advocacy organization Physicians Committee.

The Physicians Committee filed a complaint with the Food and Drug Administration last week, arguing that the segment violates the FDA's "fair balance" requirement. This law requires that drug advertisements give a fair balance to a drug's risks and benefits. The group claims that CBS's 60 Minutes received advertising payments from Novo Nordisk prior to the coverage and that the aired segment only included experts who had also been paid by Novo Nordisk.

In the segment, Wegovy was lauded with words and phrases such as "highly effective," "safe," "impressive," "fabulous," and "robust," but didn't delve into side effects or alternative treatments and strategies for weight loss. "The 60 Minutes program looked like a news story, but it was effectively a drug ad," said Physicians Committee President Neal Barnard, adjunct professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine. He also noted that Wegovy has a range of potential risks and side effects that went unmentioned in CBS's coverage, such as digestive problems, increased heart rate, gallstones, pancreatitis, and serious drops in blood sugar. The drug also poses risks for people who are pregnant or may become pregnant.

The Physicians Committee is seeking to have all of CBS's Wegovy-related stories pulled from its websites and a "corrective ad" that contains risks and side effects put up in their place. Novo Nordisk, for their part, denies any payment or sponsorship for the segment, and any control of the content or role in identifying or selecting the experts featured in the segment.

This is a serious issue and it highlights the importance of transparency in the media and pharmaceutical industries. The public relies on news outlets to provide fair and unbiased reporting, and the use of sponsored content that fails to disclose or address the risks of a drug can be dangerous. It will be interesting to see how this story develops and what action the FDA takes in response to the complaint.