Novo Nordisk, the maker of Vegovy and Ozempic, has launched legal action accusing its arch rival Eli Lilly of false advertising to suggest the superior performance of its weight loss drugs.
The Danish company filed a lawsuit in the US on Tuesday claiming Eli Lilly, which makes Monjaro and Zepbound, ran an advertising campaign “to create the misleading impression that Eli Lilly’s drugs are better”.
Novo said its rival has compared the highest approved doses of its drugs for obesity and type-2 diabetes with Novo Nordisk’s lower doses, while abandoning newer, higher-dose options.
The BBC has contacted Eli Lilly for comment.
The lawsuit comes as Novo and Eli Lilly are locked in a battle to dominate the fast-growing weight-loss drug industry, especially in the US, which analysts estimate could be worth more than $100 billion by 2030.
Novo Nordisk claimed that its main rival in the weight loss drug business had committed “numerous violations” of federal and state false advertising and unfair competition laws through its nationwide advertising campaigns.
The company said Eli Lilly’s current campaigns “deliberately” selected older studies that compared Lilly’s highest doses against lower doses of Novo Nordisk’s drugs.
It said the ads “misleadingly” presented that Eli Lilly products were superior, but suppressed or omitted “important clinical context.”
According to Novo, the products that were being incorrectly compared were Monjaro vs. Ozempic and Zepbound vs. Wegovi.
“As new and more effective treatment options become available, people deserve accurate information that reflects the latest scientific evidence and helps them make informed care decisions,” said John F. Kuckelman, Senior Vice President and Group General Counsel, Novo Nordisk.
He said, “Health care companies have a responsibility to keep their public claims accurate and up to date – ineffective, fine-print disclaimers do not fix the misleading impression created by major national campaigns.”
Novo said it is seeking a court order requiring Eli Lilly to remove its ads and instead run a “corrective advertising campaign.”
It said that if Eli Lilly did not voluntarily remove the ads, it would file a motion seeking a preliminary injunction to stop them in the coming days.
