Novo Nordisk sues Eli Lilly, accusing it of false advertising

NEWARK, N.J. — Novo Nordisk sued rival Eli Lilly in federal ​court on Tuesday, accusing the drugmaker of false advertising in claiming its weight-loss medicines outperform Novo's drugs.

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"The ads ⁠are maliciously and deceptively false because Lilly knowingly ⁠cites outdated clinical trials that compare the highest doses of the Lilly medicines to lower doses of Novo Nordisk's medicines," Novo wrote in its complaint.

Eli Lilly could not be immediately reached for comment.

Novo said it is seeking a court order requiring Lilly to withdraw the advertisements and run a corrective advertising campaign. It added that ‌it plans to seek a preliminary injunction if Lilly does ​not voluntarily remove the ads.

Novo is also seeking damages including Lilly's profits that can be attributed to the ads.

'Inadequate disclaimer' in ads

Novo said it sent Lilly a cease-and-desist letter in April after the U.S. approved a 7.2 mg dose of Wegovy. Lilly did not respond to the letter, Novo's general counsel John Kuckelman told Reuters, adding that the company instead inserted what he described as an inadequate disclaimer into the ​advertisements.

Novo says the scale of Lilly's campaign is massive. The ad campaign has been served up ‌to consumers more ‌than 700 million ⁠times just since Lilly modified its ad after Novo's letter in late April.

Kuckelman said Lilly's advertisements compare weight-loss results of about 50 pounds for Zepbound with about 33 pounds for Wegovy, even though no head-to-head trial has compared the highest approved doses of the medicines. ‌He said separate late-stage trials ​of the highest doses showed average weight loss ‌of about 48 pounds ⁠for Zepbound and ​47 pounds for Wegovy.

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