US Judge Rejects Novo Nordisk Bid to Temporarily Halt Eli Lilly Ads in Obesity Drug Dispute
Key Facts
Federal judge Zahid Quraishi rejected Novo Nordisk’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have barred Eli Lilly from continuing its weight-loss drug ads while the lawsuit proceeds, Reuters reported. The judge said Novo’s claim of irreparable harm was “insufficient to justify the extraordinary relief it seeks.” The ruling allows Lilly to continue the ads for now, but does not decide the merits of Novo’s allegation that the comparisons are misleading. The case centers on how doses are presented in national advertising campaigns for Zepbound and Mounjaro. Lilly denied wrongdoing, Reuters reported.
Novo filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on 21 July 2026, accusing Lilly’s campaigns of violating false advertising and unfair competition laws, including the Lanham Act. The company said Zepbound ads compare its 10 and 15 mg doses with Wegovy doses of 1.7 and 2.4 mg. Novo says the comparison omits Wegovy’s 7.2 mg dose, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved in March 2026. As Novo presents it, the dispute centers on whether the comparison reflects the relevant available doses. These points remain allegations in the lawsuit, not findings resolved by the denial of the preliminary injunction.
Novo’s objection also extends to Mounjaro ads, which it says compare its maximum 15 mg dose with Ozempic’s 1 mg dose. The company added that Ozempic has a higher 2 mg maintenance dose, approved more than four years ago. Reuters says the core dispute is whether the advertising comparisons use non-equivalent doses. The disagreement could lead the court to examine the marketing claims and the doses selected to show differences between the products. But the judge’s ruling was limited to rejecting a temporary halt to the ads and did not determine whether the comparisons violated the law.
Court documents indicate that the hearing on the preliminary injunction began on 27 August 2026 and resumed on 28 August, before the judge reserved a decision. An order issued on 28 July had set 27 August as the start date for the hearing, with the following day reserved as an additional date if needed. The order also paused Lilly’s deadline to respond to the complaint until the preliminary injunction request was decided. After the request was rejected, the underlying lawsuit remains active, including the claims over advertising and competition. The available text did not specify a later date for a decision on the merits.
In the lawsuit, Novo is seeking a permanent judgment requiring Lilly to withdraw the comparative ads across platforms and run a corrective advertising campaign. That request differs from the measure the judge rejected, which sought to halt the ads temporarily while the case was heard. Novo says Zepbound and Mounjaro ads omitted relevant doses in their comparisons, while Lilly denies wrongdoing. The ruling on the preliminary injunction is therefore a procedural step that does not resolve liability or the final claims. The next phase will be consideration of the underlying lawsuit and the parties’ requests before the court.
The case comes amid a U.S. obesity drug market that Reuters expects to exceed $100 billion by the end of the decade. The United States is among a small number of countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, making ad campaigns a prominent part of competition between companies. Lilly’s revenue in the second quarter of 2026 was about $23.0 billion, up 48% from the same period in 2025, driven mainly by sales volume for Mounjaro and Zepbound. In the United States, Zepbound revenue rose 44% to $4.9 billion in the quarter, as demand growth was partly offset by lower realized prices. Lilly raised its 2026 revenue outlook to a range of $85–87 billion from a previous forecast of between $82 billion and $85 billion.
Against the backdrop of the dispute over Wegovy’s higher dose, Novo presented results from a trial involving 1,407 people with obesity that compared semaglutide doses of 7.2 and 2.4 mg with placebo through week 72. The company said average weight loss at week 72 was 20.7% with the 7.2 mg dose and 17.5% with the 2.4 mg dose, compared with 2.4% with placebo. The Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy’s 7.2 mg dose on 19 March 2026 for weight loss and long-term maintenance of weight reduction in certain adults. The market data cited showed Lilly shares closing at $1,278.115 on 26 October and Novo shares closing at $39.05 on 23 October. Those closing prices do not establish that the ruling caused a move in either stock.