UNITED KINGDOM —The president of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and UK head of Novo Nordisk, Pinder Sahota, has resigned from the role at the association after the company breached the ABPI Code of Practice.
He chose to do this to avoid an ongoing process around a Novo Nordisk ABPI Code of Practice breach becoming a distraction from the vital work of the ABPI.
Novo Nordisk was recently found to be in violation of the United Kingdom’s national pharmaceutical code, and the ABPI is investigating the company’s actions.
ABPI Vice President Susan Rienow, Pfizer’s president in the United Kingdom, will serve as acting president until a new president is appointed.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) regulates its 120-plus members through the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA).
The heart of Novo’s wrongdoing was a LinkedIn post about an obesity webinar sponsored by the company.
According to the complainant who brought the case to the PMCPA, the sponsorship was not clear on the post.
Because Novo’s Saxenda is a weight loss medication, the post “appeared to be promotional,” according to the complainant.
The authority decided that the course was promotional material for Saxenda and that Novo Nordisk and the third party that had provided the course reduced confidence in the pharma industry.
The consequences would be a public reprimand for Novo Nordisk and a report to the ABPI.
Although a majority of the ABPI board voted to suspend Novo, the 75% required to make the change wasn’t reached.
Thus, the board asked the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority to audit Novo “to assist the ABPI Board in understanding the company culture and whether this case was a one-off issue or an indicator of a wider compliance failure.”
Novo’s Sahota was appointed ABPI vice president in May 2021 and promoted to president in August of last year. He has been Novo’s UK general manager since May 2018.
Novo wasn’t the only one who broke the rules. According to the PMCPA, AstraZeneca, Biogen, Daiichi Sankyo, Lundbeck, and UCB, all committed similar acts. However, only Novo received harsh reprimands.
Meanwhile, due to popular social media trends and celebrity endorsements, there is a global shortage of diabetes injections such as Ozempic and Saxenda.
Health officials have also been warning that global shortages of the drug are putting diabetics and people with other health problems at risk and making it difficult for patients to stick to treatment plans.
Doctors recently warned non-diabetics against using such injections for weight loss, saying they are far more dangerous than people think.
Common side effects of such injections include nausea, diarrhea, constipation, headache, abdominal pain, dizziness, fatigue, and low blood sugar.
Novo Nordisk is in the process of bringing another weight loss drug, Wegovy, to market. It helped patients lose far more weight than Saxenda in a trial but, while patients are eager to try new weight loss drugs, clinicians are far more used to prescribing diet and exercise.
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