You may have seen a prominent ad that aired during the Super Bowl Sunday for the weight-loss meds known as semaglutides that can be ordered inexpensively as non-FDA-approved compounds through SF-based Hims & Hers. Well, a pair of US senators are now crying foul.

The 60-second ad spot can be seen below, and it begins with a series of stats about obesity — it affects 74% of Americans, it leads to 500,000 deaths each year, etc.

"The system wasn't built to help us," the voice-over says, suggesting that the regulated healthcare system, where FDA-approved drugs like Ozempic can be hard and expensive to get, needs to be subverted. Childish Gambino’s Grammy-winning 2018 song "This Is America" plays underneath.

The ad calls Hims & Hers' semaglutide compounds "doctor trusted," and absent from the commercial is the usual barrage of possible side effects that you hear on ads from Big Pharma companies, which are required by law for TV ads for prescription drugs.

A small disclaimer appears, in tiny font, at the end of the ad that concludes with, "See website for details and important safety information." There is also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it, similarly tiny disclaimer in the middle of the ad that says, "Compounded drug products are not FDA approved. The FDA does not evaluate compounded drug products for safety, effectiveness, or quality."

The ad's release on Friday prompted Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) to write a letter to Sarah Brenner, the acting head of the FDA, noting that the ad lacked the proper disclaimers, and it "risks misleading patients by omitting any safety or side effect information when promoting a specific type of weight loss medication."

"We recognize the important roles that pharmaceutical compounding and telehealth play in the health care delivery system, helping to ensure access to FDA-approved products and filing a need for more customized treatments," the letter says. "However, we believe there should be no disparity in pharmaceutical advertising requirements between regulated entities."

Durbin adds, in the letter and in a post on X, "We will soon introduce legislation to close loopholes in the law for deceptive pharma drug ads."

Hims & Hers, as we learned last month, made a $1 million contribution to President Trump's inauguration fund, and sent an envoy to the festivities who was photographed with Health & Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (The contribution spurred some controversy around a doughnut shop and cafe in West Portal that was recently opened by Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum and his wife.)

The company is certainly hoping that the current administration will kind to the telehealth industry, and they are hoping to continue their upward trajectory among their competitors, particularly around the sales of semaglutides.

Regarding the ad and the senators' complaints, as the Chronicle reports, Hims & Hers has issued a statement saying, "We are complying with existing law and are happy to continue working with Congress and the new [Trump] Administration to fix the broken health system and ensure that patients have choices for quality, safe, and affordable healthcare."

Hims & Hers is not the only company currently promoting the sale of non-FDA-approved compounded semaglutides for weight loss. The popular weight loss app Noom is similarly doing this as of late last year — but, as Hims & Hers details in a blog post, they go the extra mile in prescribing both oral weight-loss meds and anti-nausea meds, as well as injectable GLP-1s, and their prices are lower than Noom's.