Pippins Talks TikTok’s Crackdown on Promoting Weight-Loss Products

Raqiyyah Pippins, co-lead of the firm’s Consumer Products Practice Group and the Consumer Products & Retail Industry Team, was quoted in The Washington Post article, “Weight-loss promoters are reeling after TikTok crackdown,” which discusses TikTok’s new guidelines prohibiting users from marketing weight-loss products. The app has been used by social media influencers to promote GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic.

Pippins told The Washington Post that it is legal to endorse pharmaceuticals in exchange for money as long as the promoter makes claims that can be substantiated, discloses the relationship with a sponsor, and — if the sponsor is a drugmaker — provides information about risks. She added that, generally, instances where influencers merely talk about medications working well for them present relatively low risk compared to “performance claims that are likely to trigger enforcement," referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of social media drug promotion.

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