The largely hidden force helping drive America's craze for weight-loss drugs

Carlos Campos, a family physician in south-central Texas, has spent seven years doing side work for drugmakers: nearly $1 million in payments to spread information about GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs to other prescribers, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal data. The report says Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have made at least one payment to more than a quarter of a million individual doctors and other prescribers since 2018, the first full year Ozempic was widely on the market. Total promotion spending topped $270 million, with 2025 alone involving 140,000 prescribers. Experts warn the program creates conflicts despite claims of unbiased education.