Payments made to U.S. doctors suggest an influence campaign by Novo Nordisk to promote its weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Saxenda, an investigative report by Reuters has found. The analysis showed that Novo spent approximately $26 million in payments to physicians in the U.S., with that number certain to be higher if another weight-loss drug, Ozempic, were included.

"Those payments are part of a campaign to convince U.S. doctors to make Wegovy one of the most widely prescribed drugs in history – and to persuade skeptical insurers to pay for it," wrote the study's authors, Chad Terhune and Robin Respaut. "That total includes only payments that Novo reported it made specifically related to those two drugs; it sometimes paid far more to obesity specialists without naming any drug in the federal data."