The Zhitong Finance App learned that as competition between the two pharmaceutical giants continues to escalate, Novo Nordisk (NVO.US) has filed a lawsuit in the US federal court, accusing LLY.US (LLY.US) of misleading advertisements for its best-selling diet drug Zepbound and the diabetes injectable drug Mounjaro.
The core of Novo Nordisk's lawsuit is an advertisement Eli Lilly began running in April. Novo Nordisk General Counsel John Cuckerman said in an interview that the ad cites the results of a head-to-head study of the two drugs, claiming that patients using Zepbound lost an average of 50 pounds, while those using Wegovy lost an average of 33 pounds.
According to a copy of the lawsuit documents provided by the Danish pharmaceutical company, Novo Nordisk said that Eli Lilly's advertising campaign relied on outdated weight loss comparison data, that is, the comparison was made using Nordisk's diet drug Wegovy, which is lower than the dosage currently available in the market. Although Eli Lilly's Zepbound defeated Wegovy in a head-to-head clinical trial last year, Novo Nordisk was later approved to use higher doses of the drug than in that trial.
Novo Nordisk believes that a more reasonable way to compare should refer to two different studies: one study showed that Novo Nordisk's high-dose Wegovy helped patients lose an average of 47 pounds; another study showed that Zepbound helped patients lose an average of 48 pounds.
Novo Nordisk also stated that Eli Lilly's advertisement for its diabetes drug Mounjaro contained misinformation. Based on a comparison with lower doses of Ozempic, the advertisement claims to consumers that Eli Lilly's drug is superior to Novo Nordisk's Ozempic in lowering blood sugar, yet the current Ozempic dosage on the market is different.
Cuckerman said the Danish pharmaceutical company is requesting the court to order Lilly to immediately stop broadcasting related advertisements and post “corrective advertisements.” “They have caused misinformation to spread, and now we need to clean it up,” he said.
Cuckerman said the lawsuit was filed after Novo Nordisk sent a letter of cessation of infringement to Eli Lilly in April. He claims that Eli Lilly did not respond to this, but instead added a disclaimer to the advertisement stating that the higher-dose drugs used during the study were not currently on the market.
The lawsuit has been submitted to the New Jersey District Court, alleging that Lilly violated federal and state laws relating to false advertising and unfair competition under the Lanham Act. Cuckerman said the company may also seek further relief measures through the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to industry research forecasts, the global obesity drug market is expected to reach 120 billion US dollars per year by 2030. The two pharmaceutical companies are currently competing fiercely over this huge market. Although Novo Nordisk first entered the market with Wegovy, US pharmaceutical giant Lilly then caught up and took the lead with Zepbound, and now has an advantage in terms of sales. Novo Nordisk has been speeding up actions to reclaim market share, including partnering with telemedicine companies and launching a novel oral weight loss drug that has been widely accepted by patients and is in high demand in the market.