Obesity drug giant Novo Nordisk sues rival Eli Lilly over advert claim

The drugmakers employ thousands of workers at its Irish sites in Cork, Limerick, and Athlone 

The Novo Nordisk headquarters in Bagsvaerd, Denmark. Novo Nordisk is suing Eli Lilly in US federal court, claiming that Lilly’s advertising for its blockbuster obesity shot Zepbound and diabetes injection Mounjaro is misleading as competition between the two drugmakers escalates. Picture: Nichlas Pollier/Bloomberg

Novo Nordisk is suing Eli Lilly in US federal court, claiming that Lilly’s advertising for its blockbuster obesity shot Zepbound and diabetes injection Mounjaro is misleading as competition between the two drugmakers escalates.

Novo says that Lilly’s advertising campaigns rely on outdated weight-loss comparisons with lower doses of Novo’s own obesity shot Wegovy than what’s currently available on the market, according to a copy of the complaint provided by the Danish company. 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 trial.

The two drugmakers are grappling for share of a global obesity market that’s on track to reach $120bn a year by 2030, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Though Novo beat Lilly to the market with Wegovy, the US 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 Bloombeg request for comment.

Lilly shares fell 0.6% in premarket US trading. Novo shares fell as much as 1.6% in Copenhagen.

Eli Lilly employs thousands of Irish workes at its sites in Cork and Limerick.

Eli Lilly maintains a strong presence in Ireland with two major manufacturing facilities: one in Kinsale, Co. Cork and a second in Limerick. Lilly's Kinsale site at Dunderrow already employs over 1,300 people. Meanwhile, Novo employs hundreds of Irish workers at its site in Monksland in Athlone.

The US lawsuit centres on an ad that Lilly started airing in April, which relies on the head-to-head study to say that people on Zepbound lost an average of 50lbs (22kg), while those on Wegovy lost an average of 33lbs (15kg), 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 47lbs and one in which Zepbound helped people lose an average of 48lbs.

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.

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.

The lawsuit comes after Novo sent Lilly a cease-and-desist letter in April, Kuckelman said. The US 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.

The lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey and alleges that Lilly violated federal and state false advertising and unfair competition laws under the Lanham Act. The company may also pursue additional remedies through the US Food and Drug Administration, Kuckelman said.

Bloomberg