Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Sept. 15, 2025–Sept. 19, 2025.
FDA warns Hims & Hers to stop “misleading” marketing regarding compounded weight-loss drugs
The New York Times (9/12, Jewett, Robbins, Blum) reported the FDA has “warned Hims & Hers, a major telehealth purveyor of widely popular obesity drugs, to stop ‘false or misleading’ marketing, according to a copy of a letter sent to the company and obtained” by the Times. Hims & Hers has “capitalized on a huge demand for weight-loss drugs like Novo Nordisk’s drug Wegovy, offering low-cost, copycat versions made through” compounding. In the letter sent Tuesday, the FDA “targeted the company’s compounded version of Wegovy. It said the Hims & Hers website made claims that were ‘false or misleading,’ making the product ‘misbranded.’ It called out examples of marketing language used on the company’s website, including ‘same active ingredient as Ozempic and Wegovy’ and ‘clinically proven ingredients.’” The letter said, “Compounded drug products are not FDA-approved. Your claims imply that your product is the same as an FDA-approved product when it is not.”
Bloomberg Law (9/12, Phengsitthy, Subscription Publication) added that FDA Commissioner Marty Makary on Friday “cited a widely watched TV commercial [that] aired earlier this year by telehealth company Hims & Hers promoting its copycat obesity drug as an example of the industry’s misleading advertisements.” In a JAMA article, Makary wrote, “Online pharmacies are advertising drugs with only upsides mentioned, contributing to America’s culture of overreliance on pharmaceuticals for health.” He continued, “This breach of FDA regulation was most overt earlier this year when Hims & Hers ran a Super Bowl ad highlighting the benefits of glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs without any mention of side effects or disclaimers.”
About one in six U.S. parents skipped or delayed vaccinating children against diseases besides COVID-19 or flu
The Washington Post (9/15, A1, Weber, Clement, Guskin, Sun) reports a new Washington Post-KFF poll “shows that 1 in 6 parents have delayed or skipped some vaccines for their children, excluding for coronavirus or flu. Nine percent have skipped the polio or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shots.” According to the poll, “parents who reject vaccine recommendations are primarily worried about side effects and the risks of the shots rather than facing challenges getting them. About half of parents overall lack faith in federal health agencies to ensure vaccine safety, mirroring the findings of other surveys.” The results showed “parents who home-school a child (46%) and White parents who identify as very religious (36%) are most likely to skip or delay vaccines.”
The Hill (9/15, O’Connell-Domenech) adds the poll results echo prior findings showing that “fewer children are being vaccinated in the United States. A KFF poll released in early August found that 92.5% of kindergarteners were vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, and polio, and 92.1% against DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis) during the 2024-25 school year. Those rates are drops from 2019-20 numbers, when 95% of kids had received the MMR, polio and DTaP vaccines.”
Editor’s Note: Learn how the AMA is working to promote public understanding and confidence in the use of vaccines to avoid the resurgence of vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths.
Chagas disease should be considered endemic in U.S., study says
CNN (9/16, Christensen) reports a study published in CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases last week stated that “Chagas disease, a potentially deadly condition caused by a parasite carried by insects called kissing bugs, should now be considered endemic in the United States.” The study authors “say they hope that growing global attention on the new paper means Chagas could finally get the surveillance, prevention and testing efforts and research funding it deserves in the United States.” Experts maintain that without recognition that Chagas is a constant presence in some parts of the country, more people will suffer unnecessarily. The WHO “considers Chagas a neglected tropical disease, and the Pan American Health Organization says it is endemic—with a constant presence or usual prevalence—in 21 other countries in the Americas, not including the United States.”
Bariatric surgery demonstrates better health outcomes than GLP-1s, study finds
Healio (9/17, Rhoades) reports a study found that “people with obesity and diabetes who undergo bariatric surgery face a significantly lower risk for several adverse health outcomes vs. those treated with GLP-1s.” The researchers “reported that metabolic surgery was associated with a: 32% lower risk for death; 47% lower risk for nephropathy; 35% lower risk for major adverse cardiovascular events; and 54% lower risk for retinopathy.” Furthermore, patients “who received metabolic surgery had a mean body weight reduction of 21.6% at 10 years, whereas patients who received GLP-1s had a reduction of 6.8%. Those who underwent metabolic surgery also had a greater reduction in HbA1c level (0.86% vs. 0.23%) and the need for diabetes and cardiovascular medications vs. those given GLP-1s.” The study was published in Nature Medicine.
Aspirin can reduce risk that colon cancer will come back after initial treatment
HealthDay (9/18, Thompson) reports, “Aspirin can cut by more than half the risk that colon cancer will come back following initial treatment, a new clinical trial has found.” Investigators found that “daily aspirin reduced by 55% the risk of cancer recurrence in patients whose colorectal cancer is driven by a genetic mutation.” The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
You may also be interested in: Emerging colorectal cancer trend sparks concern.
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