Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company and maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against its arch rival, Eli Lilly & Co. The legal action accuses the U.S. drugmaker of using false and materially misleading advertisements for its weight-loss and anti-diabetes treatments, including Zepbound and Mounjaro.
The lawsuit alleges that Eli Lilly intentionally selected outdated clinical trial data and bad data to make its medicines appear more effective than those produced by Novo Nordisk. Specifically, Novo Nordisk claims that Lilly compared its own highest doses against lower doses of Novo Nordisk's medications to falsely claim that its GLP-1 treatments outperform those of its competitor.
As competition between the two pharmaceutical giants escalates, Novo Nordisk has asked the court to permanently stop Lilly from running the deceptive advertisements. Additionally, the company is seeking to require the drugmaker to issue corrective advertising to address the misleading claims.