The trend: Pharma brands are partnering with Reddit to engage more directly with patients, according to a panel discussion at last week’s Advertising Week New York event.

Unpacking the trend: On the panel, Novo Nordisk’s Paid and Earned Media Director, Tara Sparks, discussed the strategy behind Wegovy’s “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) campaign on Reddit.

Novo brought in a patient using Wegovy to talk about their experience with the medication, inviting Reddit users to ask questions. The idea stemmed from Novo’s recognition that more people were seeking GLP-1 medications, but feared being judged, Sparks noted.

The result: Novo saw a 74% spike in consumer questions about Wegovy compared with a similar time period before the AMA campaign.

Other pharma companies have formed similar tie-ups with Reddit.

• An Eli Lilly AMA earlier this year featured a Lilly executive fielding questions about the company’s GLP-1 drug Zepbound. Reddit users asked about medication costs, insurance coverage of Zepbound, and upcoming changes to GLP-1 doses and forms that could benefit a greater number of people.
• Gilead launched a “Healthysexual” campaign, which included creating an unbranded account on Reddit to promote HIV prevention. The account page offers three steps patients can take when starting PrEP treatment for HIV prevention, while guiding them to further educational resources.

Zooming out: Reddit says it has the largest corpus of human conversation on the internet, with over 100,000 active subreddit communities. We estimate that there are about 78 million US consumers who have a Reddit account, and these users spend over 30 minutes a day on the platform.

However, information overload and the anonymous nature of Reddit could make it difficult for many people to trust health content on the platform. Because Reddit is generally open to public contribution, it leaves a lot of room for misinformation and sensationalized stories.

• Just 5% of social media users trust “most” health information and advice they see on Reddit, per a July 2025 KFF poll.
• 62% either trust “a little” (32%) or “some” (30%) of the health information they see on Reddit.
• Reddit falls in the middle of social media platforms people trust for health content, below TikTok and YouTube and above Facebook, Instagram, and X.

Our take: Healthcare and pharma brands need to be present on Reddit, where communities actively discuss wellness, medications, and medical services. Marketers have a natural entry point, since they know users in dedicated subreddits want information on a particular topic, such as a prescription drug.

Healthcare and pharma marketers should avoid overt promotions and instead share helpful information that guides Redditors to credible and transparent content.

• Conduct your own Q&As hosted by company leaders with medical credentials.
• Share testimonials with explicit patient consent (and without identifiable information).
• Provide new research findings with links to accessible, original sources.