SerpApi.Org
Novo Nordisk is suing Eli Lilly, saying the American drug manufacturer runs deceptive ads that unfairly compare the companies’ GLP-1 medications.
Novo Nordisk alleges that Lilly’s direct-to-consumer ads for Zepbound and Mounjaro — GLP-1 medications approved for weight loss and Type 2 diabetes — violate advertising and unfair-competition laws because they omit information about the most effective doses of the Danish drugmaker’s Wegovy and Ozempic injections. The high-dose version of Wegovy was approved in March.
“These ads are not an isolated occurrence but part of Lilly’s deliberate and continuing pattern and practice across disease areas of comparing higher doses of Lilly’s medicines to lower-dose Novo Nordisk comparator medicines,” the suit alleges.
The lawsuit is the latest signal that Novo Nordisk is operating more aggressively under CEO Maziar “Mike” Doustdar as the companies battle for patients in the biggest pharmaceutical market of all time. Under Doustdar’s leadership, the drugmaker quickly sued Hims & Hers Health when that company launched a compounded version of the Wegovy pill earlier this year. (The companies have since patched up their differences as part of a distribution deal for weight-loss drugs.)
“The harm to Novo Nordisk is particularly acute because the GLP-1 market is at an inflection point,” the company said in its lawsuit.
Millions of Americans have tried or are taking GLP-1 medications like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy or Lilly’s Zepbound in recent years. However, the market for GLP-1s took a turn earlier this year, with the launch of two GLP-1 pills: the Wegovy pill and Lilly’s Foundayo.
The Danish company said it filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, where its U.S. operations are based. It says the direct-to-consumer ads for Zepbound and Mounjaro created by Indianapolis-based Lilly violate advertising and unfair-competition laws.
Novo also took aim at the open-label clinical studies that Lilly cites in its ads, including the one titled “Watch This: Head-to-Head,” which began airing in February, according to iSpot.tv. Open-label studies are considered less rigorous than blinded trials because the participants and the researchers running the trial know what drug they are taking.
“The gold standard for comparing medicines is a robustly designed, well-conducted head-to-head clinical trial — like SURMOUNT-5, which remains the only head-to-head, randomized clinical trial directly comparing tirzepatide and semaglutide in weight management,” Lilly said in a statement. “Rather than compete on the merits of its products, Novo is asking a court to stop Lilly from communicating the results of that trial.”
Novo Nordisk’s stock was down about 1.5% in trading on Tuesday in Copenhagen.
