Adverts for prescription-only weight loss pills have been banned for breaking rules on promoting medicines to the public.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled against four adverts, including two from Voy, that were found to promote oral GLP-1 weight loss tablets.
One banned ad appeared on a bus in July and showed a hand holding a white pill beside the words "The weight is over. Voy."
A second ad, which ran on video-on-demand services in August, showed a pill and included the phrases "Oral weight support" and "It’s kind of a small deal."
ASA bans four ads promoting prescription weight loss pills
Catherine Drewett, investigations manager at the ASA, said: "Today’s rulings make clear that advertisers need to consider the overall impression their ads create.
"A medicine doesn’t need to be named for an ad to be understood as promoting a prescription-only medicine and references to a non-medicinal product in small print won’t necessarily change that impression.
"Using our AI monitoring, we have this sector under ongoing review, and we won’t hesitate to take action against ads that break the rules."
Both ads included small-print references to glucomannan, a food supplement, but the ASA said this did not change the impression that the ads were promoting prescription medication.
The regulator also banned ads by Juniper and MedExpress for promoting prescription-only oral weight loss medicines, even though the drugs were not named directly.
A YouTube ad from Juniper stated, "The weight loss pill is here," while an Instagram ad from MedExpress featured phrases such as "New weight loss tablets," "No needles," and "Join the waitlist."
Last month, similar ads were banned for promoting unlicensed and prescription-only medicines to the public.
Julian Beach, executive director of operations at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said: "The MHRA’s Advertising Standards team works closely with the ASA to support action against inappropriate advertising of medicines, and we welcome these latest rulings.
"Prescription medicines are not consumer goods, and promoting them can have serious impacts on public health.
"These safeguards are there to protect people and support appropriate treatment decisions between patients and their healthcare professionals."
Voy’s chief medical officer, Dr Earim Chaudry, said: "Every patient decision at Voy is clinician-led and these campaigns were developed to align with UK advertising standards.
"We keep all our advertising under continual review to ensure it meets any updated guidance.
"We actioned withdrawal of the advert while the investigation was under way and will not run it again.
"We cooperated fully with the ASA throughout and acted promptly on its feedback."
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A spokesperson for MedExpress said: "The advert in question was identified following routine internal review before we were contacted by the ASA and the advert was removed from all platforms.
"We will continue to work closely with regulators and review our marketing materials on an ongoing basis."
Earlier bans were issued to Simple Online Pharmacy and Pharmacy Online for promoting oral GLP-1 drugs through social media and websites, including inviting users to join waiting lists and pre-order prescription treatments.
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