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Novo Nordisk sued Eli Lilly on Tuesday, accusing its rival of misleading consumers by claiming Lilly’s drugs work better than Novo’s competing treatments.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, argues that Lilly’s ads for Zepbound and Mounjaro compared the highest doses of its drugs with lower doses of Novo’s Wegovy and Ozempic. Novo said the ads rely on “outdated” trial data, according to Reuters.
“The ads are maliciously and deceptively false because Lilly knowingly cites outdated clinical trials that compare the highest doses of the Lilly medicines to lower doses of Novo Nordisk’s medicines,” Novo said in its complaint.
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Meanwhile, Lilly rejected the claims and said its ads are based on its SURMOUNT-5 trial, completed in 2024, which compared patients taking 10 mg or 15 mg of Zepbound with those taking 1.7 mg or 2.4 mg of Wegovy.
The FDA approved a higher 7.2 mg dose of Wegovy in March, Reuters reported.
“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,” a Lilly spokesperson told FOX Business in an email.
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“Rather than compete on the merits of its products, Novo is asking a court to stop Lilly from communicating the results of that trial. We stand firmly behind our advertising,” the spokesperson added. “It is truthful, it is transparent, and it is grounded in the most direct scientific evidence available — exactly what patients deserve. We will continue to focus on the science and defend against this lawsuit vigorously.”
Novo is asking the court to order Lilly to remove the ads and run corrective advertising. It is also seeking damages tied to any profits Lilly may have earned from the campaign.
The two companies are competing for control of the fast-growing obesity drug market in the U.S., which analysts say could be worth more than $100 billion by the end of the decade, according to Reuters.
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Novo said it sent Lilly a cease-and-desist letter in April but received no response.
The company also said Lilly’s revised ads have been shown more than 700 million times since late April.
Novo Nordisk could not immediately be reached by FOX Business for comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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