Last month, Kim Kardashian caught the media’s attention when on Instagram she claimed that a $2,500 magnetic resonance imaging scan from Prenuvo had the ability to detect cancer and aneurysms among other diseases even before symptoms start to manifest themselves.
Kardashian’s post is emblematic of potential problems related to consumerism and celebrity influencers in U.S. healthcare, specifically when what’s being promoted on social media platforms isn’t necessarily connected to positive health outcomes.
As media personalities, the Kardashians have not shied away from promoting healthcare products, from Khloé Kardashian doing spots for the migraine medication Nurtec (rimegepant) to her sister Kim Kardashian posting promotions for the anti-nausea drug Diclegis for pregnant women.
The Nurtec commercials Khloé Kardashian featured in are part of the ubiquitous direct-to-consumer advertising on television in the U.S. It’s also online, on the radio, on billboards and in magazines and newspapers. And it promotes treatments for a wide range of ailments, including pain, migraine, arthritis, cancer, heartburn, ulcerative colitis, influenza, deteriorating memory and dermatological disorders. Practically every commercial ends by encouraging those watching to “ask your doctor” about the product being advertised.
However omnipresent DTC advertising is, what you see about a particular product is usually regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. This applies to efficacy claims, but also possible drug-drug interactions and side effects. Here, FDA’s regulations focus only on entities “that manufacture, distribute, or package” pharmaceuticals.
But it’s when there is at least the appearance of lack of regulation that problems arise. In the case of the antiemetic Diclegis, in her original promotional in 2015 Kim Kardashian failed to mention any side effects. This prompted the FDA to send the sponsor of the product, Duchesnay, a warning letter in which the agency stated that the advertising was “false and misleading” and it demanded corrective action. Two years later, Kardashian took to social media again to plug for Diclegis, this time, however, adding a laundry list of potential side effects.
And now Kardashian is promoting Prenuvo full-body MRIs, calling the technology “life saving.” However, medical experts are warning against its widespread use. The American College of Radiology, for example, says there is not “sufficient evidence to justify recommending total body screening for patients with no clinical symptoms, risk factors or a family history suggesting underlying disease or serious injury.”
Moreover, Kardashian praises the purported benefits of full body scans without mentioning possible drawbacks. While such scans can on occasion reveal aneurysms and cancers before they turn deadly, there are downsides. Perhaps most importantly, false positives and unnecessary follow-ups may lead to overburdening hospitals and clinics. After all, an MRI is not the starting point of a routine diagnostic work-up. Instead, after a patient provides a medical history and undergoes a physical exam an MRI is used to confirm or rule out diseases or conditions as part of a proper differential diagnosis.
In the U.S., celebrity influencers have for decades promoted many kinds of healthcare products, often through conventional DTC advertising. But the advent of social media has magnified the numbers of ads circulating as well as the reach. And certain online messages may escape regulatory scrutiny, especially those originating with companies or persons that aren’t manufacturing or marketing the products.
At the moment, nowhere is the impact of social media more evident than with weight loss products. Online pharmacies, medical spas, telehealth entities and weight loss clinics are running thousands of advertisements on social media for GLP-1 agonists, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, the active ingredient of which is semaglutide. Ozempic’s labeled indication is as a diabetes therapeutic. But its off-label use is as an obesity drug. Wegovy was approved in 2021 as a pharmaceutical that can be used to reduce weight.
On Meta and Instagram alone, there have been more than 4,000 active ad campaigns in the U.S. this year which mentioned GLP-1 agonists or semaglutide.
Notably, most of the ads on social media don’t originate from drug manufacturers.
Demand has soared for both Ozempic and Wegovy, partly in response to celebrity social media influencers. Surely, some of those influenced by social media posts are appropriate patients for the obesity medicines. For others, however, in particular those looking to just “shed a few pounds” the drugs’ use is inappropriate.
Additionally, critics, who are often in the “prevention over pills” camp, argue that the drugs unnecessarily medicalize obesity. They emphasize that obesity medications aren’t a “quick fix or a substitute for a healthy diet and exercise.”
In Europe, some government officials have openly criticized the deployment of social media to promote Ozempic. They worry that because the online videos are promoting Ozempic for a different purpose than treating diabetes this could lead to shortages of a medically necessary item.
In the end, whichever treatment or diagnostic, consumers and patients should be looking to learned intermediaries, such as their physicians, for health advice and not celebrity influencers.
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