Image by John Nacion / Variety via Getty
Donald Trump’s top pick to lead Medicare, the celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, has at least one glaring conflict of interest: that he was sponsored by the company that makes Ozempic.
As the Washington Post reports, the drug’s manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, not only hosted multiple infomercials hosted by Oz on his eponymous talk show, but was also a major marketing partner of Sharecare, a digital health company Oz runs with Oprah Winfrey and WebMD founder Jeff Arnold.
Though a Novo spokesperson told the newspaper that the company ended its relationship with Oz or Sharecare and that he is no longer a stakeholder, the talk show host continues to extoll the drugs’ benefits in his newsletter and advertise collagen supplements that can supposedly help with “Ozempic face,” which occurs when people lose weight rapidly from these medicines.
Whether he still has financial ties to Novo or not, that relationship could, per former Office of Government Ethics head Walter Shaub, Jr., “create a disincentive to do the job the American people need done by the person in his position.”
Though financial conflicts of interest are not at all new to politics, this one is particularly tricky because Ozempic and its weight loss sister drug Wegovy are currently not covered by Medicare or Medicaid and can end up costing nearly $1,000 per month without insurance. Should proposals to get them covered by the government come across his desk, Oz’s financial ties to the multi-billion-dollar company behind them could easily complicate that decision.
“The situation could be an ethical morass,” Shaub told WaPo, “unless he is truly willing to alter his finances and business dealing.”
In statements to the newspaper, neither Oz’s spokesperson nor another from the Trump-Vance transition team directly addressed the matter at hand.
Nick Clemens, the celebrity doctor’s personal spokesperson for the transition team, told the paper that Oz “will work to expand access, improve care, and get Americans the best results in the world for every dollar spent on health care.”
“All nominees and appointees will comply with the ethical obligations of their respective agencies,” transition representative Brian Hughes told the newspaper.
In direct opposition to Oz’s championing of the drug stands Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s Health Department pick who once told Fox News that Novo is “counting on selling it to Americans because we are so stupid and so addicted to drugs.”
Between those non-rebuttal statements and the anti-pharma stance of Oz’s potential boss, the Ozempic battle could be poised to get messy — if both men are confirmed, that is, which has already been shakey with Trump’s chaotic nominees.
More on Ozempic politics: Wait, Why Is Novo Selling Weight Loss Drugs for So Cheap in China?
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