Senior Principal Bioprocess Engineer

French fines over anti-obesity adverts for Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly. The ANSM fined Novo Nordisk 783,838 euros regarding adverts for Wegovy and also fined Lilly France 108,766 euros for a campaign promoting its anti-obesity drug Mounjaro, seeing the adverts as "likely to constitute indirect promotion of medicines subject to mandatory medical prescription." * Updated On May 4, 2026 at 05:54 PM IST Paris: France's medicine safety agency ANSM said Monday it had imposed fines on pharmaceutical firms Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly over their advertising campaigns on obesity. The agency fined on Novo Nordisk France 1.78 million euros ($2.08 million) - a million relating to adverts promoting its Saxenda drug and 783,838 euros regarding adverts for Wegovy weight management medication for treating obesity. The ANSM also fined Lilly France 108,766 euros for a campaign promoting its anti-obesity drug Mounjaro, seeing the adverts as "likely to constitute indirect promotion of medicines subject to mandatory medical prescription." French laws prohibit any advertising to the general public of the treatments. The national medicines regulator said that the fines aimed to "prevent any communication likely to promote the use of drug treatment as the principal response to obesity, to encourage the public to request this treatment from a healthcare professional or seek to obtain it themselves." Event. * Fri, 24 Jul 2026 * Le Meridien, Hyderabad The ANSM said the advertising campaigns were "likely to mislead the public in a context marked by extensive media coverage" as well as what it termed growing inappropriate use of medications which activate certain hormones in order notably to reduce appetite,and aid weight loss. In a statement to AFP, Novo Nordisk France said it "strongly contests" the ANSM's finding, adding it is "exploring all possible appeal avenues against this decision". Lilly France said it noted ANSM's decision, while stating it believes its awareness campaign entitled "Obesity is a sick person's problem" from a year ago was "in line with the framework applicable to communications relating to human health". According to a French study published in 2024, around 18 percent of the French population - equivalent to some ten million people - are obese.

The FDA is requesting additional safety data from Eli Lilly for its weight loss pill Foundayo, including information on potential heart and liver problems, according to the approval letter published Tuesday. The agency wants more data on risks including heart attacks, strokes, drug-induced liver injuries and delayed stomach emptying. Foundayo, approved this month under a fast-track pilot programme, is the second oral GLP-1 to reach market after Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill. The FDA is also asking Lilly to collect thyroid cancer risk data for at least 15 years. The requests are considered routine for newly approved drugs, particularly for orforglipron, Foundayo's active ingredient, which has less safety data than older GLP-1s. Lilly must also establish registries tracking children with obesity and pregnancy outcomes.

Vasa Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has partnered with Eli Lilly to use Lilly TuneLab, an AI-enabled drug discovery platform that provides access to models trained on Lilly's proprietary research data. Vasa will use the platform to accelerate development of its CAMKII delta inhibitor, which is planned for Phase 1 clinical trials in 2027. The company's VS-041 is currently in a proof-of-mechanism trial for heart failure, whilst VS-214 is on track for first-in-human trials in 2026. The platform uses federated learning, allowing companies to access Lilly's AI models whilst maintaining data privacy. Vasa will contribute its own experimental datasets to support the platform's improvement. The company focuses on developing therapies for cardiovascular, neuromuscular and age-related disorders.