Pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk announced Friday that it is pursuing a preliminary court injunction to stop Eli Lilly from running certain advertisements for its obesity and diabetes drugs in the United States.
The two drugmakers — Denmark-based Novo and U.S.-based Lilly — are engaged in an intense competition for leadership in the obesity medication market, which industry analysts forecast could surpass $100 billion in the U.S. alone before the decade is out.
Earlier this week, on Tuesday, Novo filed a lawsuit against Lilly, arguing that the company’s ads were deceiving consumers about how the two firms’ products stack up against each other. Novo had warned it would seek a preliminary injunction if Lilly refused to voluntarily pull the contested advertisements.
Lilly did not respond to a request for comment made outside of U.S. business hours on Friday. However, when the lawsuit was filed Tuesday, Lilly denied any wrongdoing, said it stood behind its advertising, and vowed to fight the lawsuit aggressively.
In its legal filing, Novo Nordisk alleges that Lilly broke false advertising and unfair competition laws through marketing campaigns for its obesity drug Zepbound and diabetes medication Mounjaro.
Specifically, Novo contends that Lilly’s ads pit the highest approved doses of Zepbound and Mounjaro against lower doses of Novo’s drugs Wegovy and Ozempic — while leaving out newer, higher-dose versions of Novo’s medications that the company says produce greater weight loss results.
Novo has argued that the advertising gives consumers the false impression that Lilly’s products outperform its own. Beyond the preliminary injunction, Novo is also seeking a permanent court order that would require Lilly to pull its current ad campaigns entirely and run corrective advertising in their place.
