LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Novo Nordisk sued rival Eli Lilly in a U.S. federal court on Tuesday, accusing the U.S. drugmaker of false advertising in claiming its weight-loss medicines outperform Novo's drugs.
Will Novo or Lilly win the weigh-loss drug ads battle?
- Novo accuses Lilly of claiming its weight-loss medicines outperform Novo's
- Danish drugmaker alleges Lilly violated ad and unfair competition laws in Zepbound and Mounjaro ads
- Novo, Lilly locked in battle to dominate U.S. obesity drug market
The Danish company filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, alleging Lilly violated federal and state false advertising and unfair competition laws, including the Lanham Act, through nationwide advertising campaigns for obesity drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro.
Novo alleges Lilly compared the highest approved doses of its medicines with lower doses of Novo's Wegovy and Ozempic while omitting newer, higher-dose versions that Novo says deliver greater weight loss.
"The ads are maliciously and deceptively false because Lilly knowingly cites outdated clinical trials that compare the highest doses of the Lilly medicines to lower doses of Novo Nordisk’s medicines," Novo wrote in its complaint.
But Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly said it stands firmly behind its ads, which are based on the results of its SURMOUNT-5 trial. That trial — completed in 2024 — compared patients on 10 mg or 15 mg of Lilly's Zepbound to patients on 1.7 mg or 2.4 mg doses of Wegovy. The FDA approved a 7.2 mg dose of Wegovy in March of this year.
