Wegovy maker sues Lilly over weight-loss ads
By: Ken Alltucker
USA Today
..... Nove Nordisk sued rival Eli Lilly on July 21 [2026] over what Nove said is false advertising comparing the effectiveness of the drug companies' respective injectable weight-loss medicines.
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The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey contends Lilly's ads are :deliberately simple and deliberately false" because they tout :outdated clinical trials that compare the highest doses of the Lilly medicines to lower doses of Novo Nordisk's medicines.
..... Novo said the ads are deceptive because they present the results as "proof of brad, product-level superiorly while burying or omitting critical clinical context."
..... John Kuckelman, Novo's senior vice president and group general counsel, said Lilly's ads have misled consumers.
..... "What's really focus here is a nationwide pattern of deceptive advertising, where campaigns are misleading people with obesity and diabetes by comparing the highest doses of Lilly's medicines with lower doses of Novo's medicines," Kunkelman told USA today. "The patients are left with the misleading impression that Lilly's drugs are superior to Noveo's.
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Novo Nordisk isn't asking Lilly to stop selling the weight-loss and diabetes medication. Rather, Novo is asking a judge to issue a permanent order requiring Lilly to pull its comparison ads across all platforms. It also wants the court to order Lilly to conduct a "corrective advertising campaign."
..... A Lilly televisions commercial compared the companies' weight-loss drugs, stating that people using Lilly's Zepbound lost an average of 50 pounds compared with an average of 33 pounds for a 2.4-milligram dose of Novo's Wegovy, the lawsuit said.
..... However, the commercial did not share results from a clinical trail that showed patients on a higher dose of Wegovy lost an average of 47 pounds, the lawsuit said. The Food and Drug Administration approved Wegory's higher, 7.2-milligram dose in March. [2026]
..... The lawsuit said Lilly sued the "same misleading approach" in ads comparing the companies' diabetes drugs. Lilly's Mounjaro and Novo's Ozempic. Novo said ads compared higher-dose versions of Monunjaro to lower-dose versions of Ozempic, even when a higher-dose version of Ozempic was available.
..... Eli Lilly said it stood firmly behind tis ads, which are based on the results of a 2024 trial.
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"Rather than compete on the merits of its products, Novo is asking a court to stop Lilly from communication the results of that trial," a Lilly spokesperson said in a statement. "We will continue to focus on the science and defend against this lawsuit vigorously."
..... The two pharmaceutical companies are engaged in an intense battle for the market for popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, which are mainly prescribed to treat obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
..... While Novo, was first on the market with its anti-obesity medication Wegovy, Lilly's sales for weight-loss drug Zepbound have surged. Zepbound's sales reached nearly $4.2 billion during the first three months of 2026, an increase of 80% from the year before.
..... Novo said in the lawsuit that Lilly's ads have harmed its business: The "false and misleading adverting diverts patient demand and prescriptions from Novo Nordisk's medicines to Lilly's medicines."
..... Analysts expect the weight-loss sector to generate about 4100 billion in annual sales in the next decade, Reuters reported.
..... Contributing: Reuters