Almost all of last month’s top 10 pharma TV ad spenders took advantage of February’s two major sporting events to get the word out about their meds.
Eight of the 10 biggest spenders named either Super Bowl LX or NBC’s broadcasts of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics as their top TV program by spend, according to data shared with Fierce Pharma Marketing by iSpot.
In the Olympics camp were AbbVie’s Rinvoq and Johnson & Johnson’s Tremfya—February’s top two drug ad spenders—as well as AbbVie’s Skyrizi, J&J’s Caplyta, Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent.
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Novartis’ corporate brand both named the NFL as their top TV program by spend in February, when the league’s only game was the Super Bowl. According to iSpot, Novo poured $33.3 million into airing its big game Wegovy pill spot last month, making up more than 80% of the GLP-1 drug’s $39.5 million spending total during the period. Novartis, meanwhile, spent $17.8 million of its $19.8 million monthly total airing its own Super Bowl ad, an unbranded spot featuring NFL stars encouraging prostate cancer testing.
The only two outliers were Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance and AbbVie’s Vraylar—at Nos. 9 and 10 on February’s list, respectively—both of which named the Grammy Awards broadcast as their top TV program by spend.
Rinvoq edged out Tremfya to take the lead on February’s list, following a January in which J&J’s immunology blockbuster reached new ad spending heights and pushed the top 10’s combined total to a record-breaking $323.8 million. As in past years, February and its truncated timeline brought a sharp drop in spending as, all together, the month’s top 10 shelled out $255.9 million to air their commercials.
Overall, almost all of the top 10 brands saw their spending totals drop month over month, sans only the two that went big on Super Bowl LX, which both saw massive jumps from their January outlays, sending Wegovy into third place and Novartis into fifth.
Skyrizi, typically locked into the top three on iSpot’s monthly analyses, dropped to No. 4, while Caplyta, Zepbound and Dupixent each took dips of their own to fill out the sixth through eighth spots.
Below, find the full data for February 2026’s 10 biggest pharma ad spenders, as compiled by iSpot for Fierce.
1. Rinvoq
Movement: Up one spot
What is it? AbbVie’s JAK inhibitor immunology drug
Est. national TV ad spend: $41 million (down from $51.7 million in January)
Number of spots: Five (one arthritis, one ulcerative colitis/Crohn’s disease, three eczema)
Biggest-ticket ad: “Checklist” (est. $15 million)
2. Tremfya
Movement: Down one spot
What is it? Johnson & Johnson’s immunology drug
Est. national TV ad spend: $39.8 million (down from $78.2 million in January)
Number of spots: 11 (three psoriasis, five UC/Crohn’s disease, three psoriatic arthritis)
Biggest-ticket ad: “Relentless Weed” (est. $8.5 million)
3. Wegovy
Movement: Not listed last month
What is it? Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 agonist for obesity
Est. national TV ad spend: $39.5 million (up from $2.4 million in January)
Number of spots: Two
Biggest-ticket ad: “A New Way” (est. $33.3 million)
4. Skyrizi
Movement: Down one spot
What is it? AbbVie’s immunology drug
Est. national TV ad spend: $37 million (down from $44.9 million in January)
Number of spots: Eight (two psoriatic arthritis, four psoriasis, two UC/Crohn’s disease)
Biggest-ticket ad: “I'm All In: Swimming Pool” (est. $9.3 million)
5. Novartis
Movement: Not listed last month
Est. national TV ad spend: $19.8 million (up from $108K in January)
Number of spots: Three
Biggest-ticket ad: “Relax Your Tight End” (est. $17.8 million)
6. Caplyta
Movement: Down one spot
What is it? Johnson & Johnson’s atypical antipsychotic drug
Est. national TV ad spend: $17.9 million (down from $26.4 million in January)
Number of spots: Four (two bipolar, two depression)
Biggest-ticket ad: “Let in the Lyte: More of the Lyte” (est. $8.8 million)
7. Zepbound
Movement: Down three spots
What is it? Eli Lilly’s GIP/GLP-1 agonist for obesity
Est. national TV ad spend: $17.2 million (down from $34 million in January)
Number of spots: Seven
Biggest-ticket ad: “Olympics: Grit” (est. $6.5 million)
8. Dupixent
Movement: Down one spot
What is it? Sanofi and Regeneron’s immunology drug
Est. national TV ad spend: $15.5 million (down from $17.4 million in January)
Number of spots: Eight (four asthma, four eczema)
Biggest-ticket ad: “Better Days” (est. $5.6 million)
9. Jardiance
Movement: Up one spot
What is it? Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s diabetes and kidney disease drug
Est. national TV ad spend: $15 million (down from $16 million in January)
Number of spots: Two (diabetes)
Biggest-ticket ad: “Behind the Scenes” (est. $10 million)
10. Vraylar
Movement: Down two spots
What is it? AbbVie’s bipolar and MDD drug
Est. national TV ad spend: $13.2 million (down from $16.6 million in January)
Number of spots: Four (two bipolar, two depression)
Biggest-ticket ad: “Jane's Head” (est. $7.6 million)