Novo Nordisk has filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleging false advertising and unfair competition. The suit specifically targets Lilly's direct-to-consumer advertisements for its GLP-1 medications, Zepbound and Mounjaro, which Novo claims are misleading because they compare these drugs to lower or outdated doses of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic, omitting the most effective and recently approved doses of Novo's products.
The core of Novo Nordisk's complaint is that Lilly's ads rely on comparisons to Wegovy's 1.7/2.4 mg and Ozempic's 1 mg doses, while neglecting the FDA-approved 7.2 mg dose of Wegovy (approved in March 2026), which has demonstrated an average weight reduction of approximately 19% (about 47 pounds) in a recent study. Novo argues there are no head-to-head clinical trials comparing the highest doses of these rival drugs. The lawsuit also points out that Lilly's Mounjaro ads compare against a 1 mg dose of Ozempic, despite a 2 mg maintenance dose being approved more than four years ago.
Novo Nordisk is seeking a permanent injunction to compel Lilly to remove these comparative advertisements across all platforms and to implement a corrective advertising campaign. The company also intends to file a preliminary injunction request to immediately halt the ads while the legal proceedings continue. Novo is also pursuing financial damages, including the recovery of lost profits and potentially triple that amount under U.S. law, citing hundreds of millions of impressions from Lilly's Zepbound TV commercial alone.
This legal action underscores the intense competition between Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in the rapidly expanding GLP-1 drug market, which analysts project could reach more than $100 billion annually by 2030. Novo had previously sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lilly in April, but according to Novo, Lilly did not respond by taking down the ads, instead adding a disclaimer about dose availability.
