Novo Nordisk: Eli Lilly Is Lying in Weight-Loss Ads

Novo Nordisk just hauled Eli Lilly into federal court, accusing its chief obesity-drug rival of juicing sales with misleading weight-loss claims. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New Jersey, the Danish company says Lilly's splashy ads for Zepbound and Mounjaro break US laws on false advertising and unfair competition by telling consumers that Lilly's treatments beat Novo's Wegovy and Ozempic, reports Reuters. In reality, Lilly compared its highest approved doses to older, lower doses of Novo's drugs while leaving out newer, higher-dose versions, says Novo. More recent studies show the companies' drugs to be comparable, pre the Wall Street Journal.

The Danish company calls the ads "maliciously and deceptively false" for leaning on outdated studies and says the campaign has already reached consumers more than 700 million times. The company wants Lilly's ads pulled, a court-ordered corrective campaign, and profits it claims Lilly made because of the marketing. The Indianapolis drugmaker, which has overtaken Wegovy with Zepbound in the red-hot US obesity market, did not immediately comment. The legal fight underscores the stakes in a sector analysts see topping $100 billion by 2030—and highlights how rarely Big Pharma's marketing wars spill into false-advertising court battles.