Novo Nordisk sues rival Eli Lilly over weight loss drug advertising

Drugmaker Novo Nordisk sued rival Eli Lilly on Tuesday, accusing the company of false advertising over the performance of its weight loss drugs. 

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in New Jersey, alleges Lilly intentionally selected outdated studies to show the use of Mounjaro and Zepbound lead to significantly more weight loss than Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy. 

The studies compared higher doses of Lilly’s medicine against lower doses of Novo’s drugs, the complaint alleged, while omitting newer, higher-dose versions that Novo said deliver greater weight loss. 

“Lilly clearly knows that the Food and Drug Administration has approved newer, more effective doses of Novo Nordisk’s medicines that offer patients additional weight reduction or glycemic control. But Lilly omits that information,” the lawsuit stated. 

There are no head-to-head clinical trials comparing the highest doses of the respective medicines, but more recent data shows that Novo’s drugs can help patients lose a comparable amount of weight as Lilly’s,........

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