Weight Loss Medication Marketing and First Nations People: Disease Awareness or Corporate Profit?

Abstract

The growing popularity of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) has driven off-label prescriptions and supply shortages, raising equity concerns for First Nations peoples disproportionately affected by diabetes. Pharmaceutical companies have simultaneously accelerated their marketing through disease-awareness campaigns, sponsored events and telehealth models, with many campaigns prominently featuring women of colour, including First Nations women. In this perspective article, we argue, from a commercial determinants of health perspective, that pharmaceutical companies often influence perceptions of body image, medicines policy and prescribing without addressing the systemic conditions driving First Nations health inequity. We urge clinicians and policymakers to ensure decisions remain free from commercial influence.