Pharma heavyweights clash over anti-obesity drug ads

Danish pharmaceuticals heavyweight Novo Nordisk said Tuesday it is suing its arch US rival, Eli Lilly, over "false and materially misleading" adverts for their competing weight-loss and anti-diabetes treatments. 

The Danish maker of Wegovy and Ozempic complained that the US group -- which makes rival weight-loss treatments Zepbound and Mounjaro -- "intentionally selected outdated studies" that compared Lilly's highest doses against lower doses of Novo Nordisk's medicines.

The US group's ads "deceptively (presented) those results as proof of broad, product-level superiority while burying or omitting critical clinical context," the Danish group said.

Novo Nordisk has developed a molecule called semaglutide, while Eli Lilly developed rival molecule tirzepatide.

The drugs are a financial windfall for each the pharmaceutical giants.

"As new and more effective treatment options become available, people deserve accurate information that reflects the latest scientific evidence and helps them make informed care decisions," said Novo Nordisk's general counsel, John F. Kuckelman.

"Healthcare companies have a responsibility to keep their public claims accurate and current -- ineffective, fine-print disclaimers do not fix the misleading impression created by major national campaigns."

The target of the Danish group's wrath is an advertising campaign that was "aired during recent, widely viewed global sporting broadcasts and on TikTok and Facebook, causing widespread confusion," it said.

Anti-obesity treatments mimic a hormone secreted by the intestines, GLP-1.

They can be used for weight loss and/or to treat type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.