- Novo Nordisk CEO defends lawsuit against Eli Lilly over weight-loss drug ads
- Novo claims Lilly's ads omit Novo's newer, higher-dose Wegovy data
- Lilly cites a 2025 trial showing Zepbound outperforms older Wegovy doses in weight loss
Novo Nordisk's Chief Executive Officer Mike Doustdar stood by the company's decision to take Eli Lilly to court over its weight-loss drug marketing, arguing that patients need the "full truth" about competing products before choosing between them.
"I am a big fan of competition. I think competition has to be fierce, but I also think competition has to be fair," Doustdar said on CNBC's "Mad Money."
"I believe that patients deserve to know the full truth together with their physicians before they make a choice of what product to take," he added.
Novo Nordisk filed the lawsuit last month, alleging that Lilly's advertising for its injectable GLP-1 drugs misleads consumers about their efficacy relative to Novo's treatments.
Lilly has said its advertising is factually accurate and cites a head-to-head trial pitting its obesity drug Zepbound against Novo's Wegovy, published in The New England Journal of Medicine in May 2025.
That trial showed patients on the highest tested dose of Zepbound lost an average of 20.2% of their body weight over 72 weeks, compared with 13.7% for the then-maximum dose of Wegovy.
According to the outlet, Doustdar argued that these comparisons omit Novo's newer, higher-dose 7.2 mg version of Wegovy, approved by the FDA in March, which the company says produced average weight loss of about 19% in its own study.
"We believe that the advertisements that they have been doing, while truthful, is not the complete picture," Doustdar said, adding that "people need to know that there is a more advanced version of Wegovy in the market with a different profile."
ALSO READ: Pharma Giants Clash: Novo Nordisk Takes Eli Lilly To Court Over 'Misleading' Weight-Loss Ads
Responding, an Eli Lilly spokesperson told CNBC that Doustdar had effectively confirmed Lilly's advertising is truthful, and maintained that no head-to-head trial supports comparing the new Wegovy dose with Zepbound.
The dispute unfolds as competition between the two companies intensifies.
Doustdar acknowledged Lilly's gains in injectable weight-loss drug sales, while pointing to strong early uptake of Novo's new Wegovy pill, which he said has surpassed 5 million US prescriptions since its January launch.
ALSO READ: Eli Lilly Shares Surge 6% On Upbeat Annual Earnings Forecast; Mounjaro Sales Spike 91%
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