Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical giant behind the GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, has been facing regulatory scrutiny across markets. In India, its obesity-awareness campaign was called out for potentially amounting to indirect promotion of prescription drugs. Apart from this, it has also faced findings over promotional claims, advertising practices, and drug-safety concerns abroad as well. Read to know more about it here.
Rules Flouted By Eli Lilly
In India, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) warned pharmaceutical companies against the direct or indirect promotion of prescription-only GLP-1 medicines to consumers. Its March 2026 advisory specifically flagged disease-awareness campaigns, influencer engagement, and corporate campaigns if they create brand recall or visibility for prescription drugs. These regulations put Eli Lilly’s “We Know Now” campaign under scrutiny. It was launched in mid-2025, which was just months later Mounjaro came into the Indian market. The campaign promoted the idea that obesity is a disease rather than simply a personal failing.
Not just this, it featured across newspapers, billboards, and social media, and even included collaborations with celebrities. While Mounjaro was not named, Eli Lilly’s corporate branding featured prominently. After this, the company paused the campaign and sought clarification from Indian authorities over how the rules apply to non-branded disease-awareness campaigns. Other than this, in September 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration issued Eli Lilly a warning letter over a promotional video that discussed Zepbound and Mounjaro. They said that it was false or misleading as it created a misleading impression about the drug’s safety by omitting or minimising important risk information.
Separately, Lilly’s Mounjaro is among the GLP-1 medicines caught up in concerns surrounding a rare eye condition called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION, which can cause vision loss.
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