Novo Nordisk Sues Eli Lilly in US Over Obesity Drug Ads

Novo Nordisk A/S sued Eli Lilly & Co., accusing its rival of misleading advertising as competition in the U.S. market for obesity drugs ratchets up further.

Novo says that Lilly’s advertising campaigns rely on outdated weight-loss comparisons with lower doses of Novo’s own obesity shot Wegovy than what’s currently available, according to the complaint. Though Lilly’s Zepbound beat Wegovy in a head-to-head trial last year, Novo subsequently got approval for a higher dose of its drug than what was used in that study.

The two drugmakers are grappling for a bigger slice of a global obesity market that’s on track to reach $120 billion a year by 2030, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Though Novo beat Lilly to market with Wegovy, the U.S. drugmaker caught up with Zepbound and now has the lead in sales.

Novo has been working overtime to claw back market share, partnering with telehealth companies and rolling out a new weight-loss pill that’s proven to be enormously popular with patients.

Lilly didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

Lilly shares were 0.6% lower in premarket trading at 8:35 a.m. in New York. Novo shares fell as much as 2% in Copenhagen.

The lawsuit in U.S. federal court in New Jersey centers on an ad that Lilly started airing in April, which relies on the head-to-head Surmount-5 study to say that people on Zepbound lost an average of 50 pounds, while those on Wegovy lost an average of 33 pounds, John Kuckelman, Novo’s general counsel, said in an interview.

Novo argues that a better comparison would be two different studies, one in which Novo’s high-dose Wegovy showed average weight loss of 47 pounds and one in which Zepbound helped people lose an average of 48 pounds. The Food and Drug Administration approved the more intense Wegovy shot — which uses triple the previous highest dose — in March, and Novo started marketing it in April. It’s too early to share data on how many patients are taking the new triple dose, Novo said.

Novo also says that Lilly’s ads for its diabetes shot Mounjaro incorrectly tell consumers that the Lilly drug helps reduce blood sugar more than Novo’s Ozempic, based on a comparison to a lower dose of Ozempic than is now on the market. Lilly compared the two drugs in a 2021 study called Surpass-2.

The Danish drugmaker is asking the court to order Lilly to stop running its ads immediately and issue “corrective advertising,” Kuckelman said. “They’ve already polluted the water, so to speak, and now it needs to be cleaned up,” he said.

Novo is is also seeking to recover the profits it lost through the advertising, as well as triple that amount under U.S. law.

The lawsuit comes after Novo sent Lilly a cease-and-desist letter in April, Kuckelman said. The U.S. company didn’t respond, he said, instead adding a disclaimer to its ad saying that the higher dose wasn’t available at the time of the study.

Novo alleges Lilly violated U.S. and state false advertising and unfair competition laws, including the federal Lanham Act. The company may also pursue additional remedies through the FDA, Kuckelman said.

Top photo: The Novo Nordisk A/S headquarters in Bagsvaerd, Denmark. Photographer: Nichlas Pollier/Bloomberg.