Trendy weight-loss drug Ozempic is now a Hollywood punchline. See how doctors and clinics are using TikTok to sell the weight-loss injections.

• Medical staff are promoting semaglutide injections for weight loss on social media.
• Novo Nordisk, which makes the drug under the names Ozempic and Wegovy, said it has no role in posts.

The video is like many on TikTok, with an on-trend dance to a catchy beat. Except this one is filmed in a medical office.

It opens with a doctor jiving to the beat of Soulja Boy's "Pretty Boy Swag." Then it cuts to a woman, dancing and grinning alongside the caption: "Down 85 lbs & still going." The video, which has nearly 60,000 likes, is among a proliferation of TikTok posts tagged with the names of semaglutide weight-loss drugs, including Wegovy and Ozempic.

The doctor in the video is Dr. Nelson Simmons of the Texas clinic, Personal MD Wellness & Aesthetics. He told Insider he added the hashtags "#wegovy" and "#semaglutide" to the video to make it more visible on TikTok — even though he said the woman in the video isn't taking those drugs. Videos tagged with those hashtags have more than 800 million views on TikTok.

"What drives the video to go viral is if you can generate some kind of discussion," he told Insider.

Simmons' practice is one of a growing number of clinics trying to ride the wave of interest in semaglutide injections by targeting potential patients through social media.

The posts are varied: Some hype claims of dramatic weight loss using the drugs, while others focus on side effects and possible treatment plans. Unlike official ads, partnerships, or promotions, TikTok posts receive little oversight from government agencies or medical boards.

The Denmark-based drugmaker Novo Nordisk developed the semaglutide injections, better known by the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy. The US Food and Drug Administration approved Ozempic to treat type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for "chronic weight management" in certain patients with other health conditions. But demand is now surging for the drugs to treat general weight loss, thanks in part to their rumored use by some celebrities.

This year's Oscars host, Jimmy Kimmel, alluded to it during the ceremony on Sunday night, joking, "When I look around this room, I can't help but wonder, 'Is Ozempic right for me?'"

Novo Nordisk told Insider that it doesn't play a role in the drugs' TikTok virality, saying it is aware of the posts but that it does not "currently work with any influencers to share their experience taking Wegovy or Ozempic through their personal social media channels."

Insider contacted 10 clinics across the US that are using social media to promote these drugs as weight-loss tools, and practitioners from four — including a doctor, a surgeon, and two nurse practitioners — responded to discuss their approach.

All four said the TikTok posts are driving an influx of patients to their clinics. One nurse practitioner, Jennifer Harris, said demand is so high that she's now referring patients to other clinics.

"I was giving people information and putting it out there, and it just exploded," said Harris, who works at River Valley Obstetrics and Gynecology, a women's health clinic in Russellville, Arkansas. "People want to know this stuff."

Demand for semaglutide explodes as people look for a new weight-loss treatment

Health clinics' TikTok posts capture the excitement and frenzy around the treatment by using popular songs like Meghan Trainor's hit "Made You Look" and other viral audio clips.

The medical professionals who spoke to Insider said they post about semaglutide on TikTok because patients are demanding more information about the drug.

One post by Amy Oden, a nurse practitioner at Emerge Medical Spa in Tulsa, Oklahoma, touts Wegovy using a quote from the 2006 movie "The Devil Wears Prada." The video ends with Oden opening a box of injections over audio of Meryl Streep's character saying "everyone wants this."

Oden told Insider that her videos are "drumming up quite a bit of new business" among patients of all ages. Many have told her they want to try semaglutide because other weight-loss treatments have failed, she said. "They're always told 'diet and exercise,' and they're discouraged," Oden said.

Some semaglutide posts mimic a doctor's visit. In one video from user @alegrohealth, the name of a clinic in McKinney, Texas, a woman wearing a lab coat answers what she calls "the most common questions I get from those starting semaglutide."

The McKinney clinic did not respond to Insider's request for comment. TikTok and Instagram did not respond to Insider's requests for comment on the semaglutide videos.

A December post features Harris — the Arkansas nurse practitioner — nodding to a remix of the '90s hit "Get Ready for This" by 2 Unlimited along with the words: "We can start prescribing all strengths of Wegovy again in January!!"

Harris has also posted videos discussing the side effects of semaglutide weight-loss treatments, such as constipation and nausea.

"I want to make sure that I'm giving accurate information," she told Insider.

The medical professionals who spoke to Insider said that they don't have a promotional arrangement with Novo Nordisk. Harris said she interacts with a Novo Nordisk sales representative to receive up-to-date information about the company's products, but said the representative has no role in her social-media posts.

Dr. Giselle Prado-Wright, a surgeon specializing in cosmetic procedures and weight loss, said she was initially skeptical of semaglutide treatments but started posting about the drug on TikTok in response to patient demand.

"When people started asking about it, I was resistant to offering it because it's an injectable, it's expensive," Prado-Wright, who practices at Exert Clinic, in Fort Myers, Florida, told Insider. She estimated that it can cost about $350 a month for lower-cost versions of semaglutide mixed with other ingredients that come from compounding pharmacies. The monthly out-of-pocket costs for Wegovy and Ozempic are $1,349 and $892, respectively.

"But in the past six months it has taken off so much, even patients on my existing weight-loss-medications program want to switch to the injectable," she said.

Doctors can prescribe medications for off-label uses

In TikTok videos, Harris and many other medical professionals have discussed prescribing Ozempic for weight loss — a function that qualifies as off-label use, since Ozempic isn't FDA approved for that use.

The FDA bars companies and influencers they're partnering with from promoting their drugs for off-label uses. But doctors don't have those restrictions — as long as they aren't getting paid by the drugmaker.

For its part, a Novo Nordisk representative, Allison Schneider, told Insider that the company "does not promote, suggest, or encourage off-label use of our medicines."

"We are committed to the highest ethical standards and compliance with applicable laws in every aspect of our relationship with healthcare professionals," said Schneider.

The practitioners Insider spoke to also said they did not have any financial relationships with Novo Nordisk or other drugmakers.

If they did, the FDA and Federal Trade Commission would require certain disclosures. The FTC requires influencers, including doctors, to disclose on posts if they have financial arrangements with drugmakers whose products they're promoting.

Clinicians promoting certain drugs online can create the appearance of a conflict of interest, even if no paid partnership exists, said Kelly Michelson, a professor of bioethics and medical humanities at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

"As clinicians, we're sort of trained that avoiding conflicts of interest is part of what it means to be a professional clinician," she said. "I would certainly worry that advertising or advocating for a particular therapy would start to cross that boundary of professionalism."

Prado-Wright said she posts about weight-loss drugs on TikTok because patients are curious about them.

"We do social media for fun, because it's trending, because patients ask about it," she said. "I don't necessarily share everything I know medically on every post, but when a patient comes for the in-person visit, they get the full spiel."

"I honestly think it's a little overhyped," she said of the weight-loss drugs. "It's not this magic skinny shot."