US judge refuses to block Eli Lilly weight-loss drug ads, rules against Novo Nordisk

By Jonathan Stempel

Oct 26 (Reuters) - A US judge rejected on Monday Novo Nordisk's request to block Eli Lilly from continuing advertisements for weight-loss drugs that the Danish drugmaker considered false and misleading, affecting markets with tens of billions of dollars of annual sales.

US District Judge Zahid Quraishi in Trenton, New Jersey, said Novo Nordisk did not deserve a preliminary injunction, having failed to show that Eli Lilly's ads threatened sales, undermined its goodwill, or caused lasting damage to its clinical reputation.

Quraishi called Novo Nordisk's claim of irreparable harm "inadequate to warrant the extraordinary relief it seeks."  The judge ruled after a two-day hearing in late August.

Novo Nordisk sued Eli Lilly in July, saying ads for the obesity drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro violated federal and state false advertising and unfair competition laws by comparing higher doses of those products with lower doses of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic.

One commercial included a voiceover claim, with a written disclaimer, that people using Zepbound on average lost 50 pounds (23 kg) while people using Wegovy on average lost 33 pounds (15 kg).

"While we are disappointed with the court’s decision, today's ruling did not decide the question of whether Lilly's advertising is false and misleading, and this litigation is still ongoing," a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in an email. "Everyone deserves clear, accurate and up-to-date information when making decisions about their health."

Eli Lilly, based in Indianapolis, has denied wrongdoing and said it was pleased with the decision.

WEIGHT-LOSS DRUGS ARE BIG BUSINESS

Weight-loss drugs have become major businesses for large pharmaceutical companies. The United States is among a handful of countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines.

In his 25-page decision, Quraishi said that while Novo Nordisk's witnesses were credible, Eli Lilly's ads had at most a negligible market impact between April and July, with prescriptions for Novo Nordisk's products remaining stable.

The judge said money damages could compensate Novo Nordisk for any "nontrivial harm" it might suffer absent an injunction.

Quraishi also found Novo Nordisk's case "less than persuasive" based on a "very preliminary record," though he did not rule on the merits. 

Novo Nordisk reported combined sales of about $32 billion for obesity medicines and Ozempic in 2025, court papers show.

The drugmaker is working to regain market share in the United States for its injectable obesity drugs, a market projected to exceed $100 billion by the end of the decade. 

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel and Matthew Lewis)