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Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovi and Ozympic, has launched legal action against rival Eli Lilly, accusing it of false advertising by claiming its weight loss pills work better.
The Danish company filed a lawsuit in the United States on Tuesday, claiming that Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro and Zepbound, deployed advertising campaigns to “create the false impression that Eli Lilly’s drugs are superior.”
Novo said its rival has given up newer, higher-dose options compared to Novo Nordisk’s doses of its well-tolerated drugs for obesity and type-2 diabetes.
The BBC has contacted Eli Lilly for comment.
The lawsuit comes as Novo and Eli Lilly battle for control of the fast-growing weight-loss drug industry, particularly in the U.S., analysts said in 2015. They estimated that by 2030 it could cost more than 100 billion dollars.
Novo Nordisk, a major competitor in the weight-loss drug business, has committed “multiple violations” of federal and state false advertising and unfair competition laws through nationwide advertising campaigns.
The company said Eli Lilly’s current campaigns “deliberately” chose outdated studies comparing Lilly’s high-dose to low-dose Novo Nordisk drugs.
He said the ads “misleadingly” presented Eli Lilly’s products as superior but buried “crucial clinical context”.
According to Novo, the products being mistakenly compared were Mountjaro vs Ozympic and Zepbond 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. Kukelman, senior vice president and group general counsel, Novo Nordisk.
“Healthcare companies have a responsibility to make their public claims accurate and timely – ineffective and poorly printed disclaimers will not correct the misrepresentation created by major national campaigns,” he said.
Novo said it was seeking a court order to force Eli Lilly to pull the ad and instead run what it called a “corrective advertising campaign.”
He added that if Eli Lilly does not voluntarily remove the ads, it will file a motion for a preliminary injunction to block them in the coming days.
