By Jonathan Stempel
Oct 26 (Reuters) - A US judge on Monday rejected Novo Nordisk's request to block Eli Lilly from continuing weight-loss drug advertisements that the Danish drugmaker considered false and misleading.
Novo Nordisk had requested a preliminary injunction to halt Eli Lilly's advertising while the case proceeded.
US District Judge Zahid Quraishi in Trenton, New Jersey rejected that request, calling Novo Nordisk's claim of irreparable harm "inadequate to warrant the extraordinary relief
it seeks."
Weight-loss drugs have become major businesses for large pharmaceutical companies. The United States is one of only a handful of countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines.
Novo Nordisk sued Eli Lilly in July, saying ads for the obesity drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro compared higher doses of those products with lower doses of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic.
The ads claiming that Eli Lilly drugs were superior violated false advertising and unfair competition laws, justifying an injunction, Novo Nordisk said.
Eli Lilly has denied wrongdoing.
Novo Nordisk 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.
Quraishi ruled following a hearing on August 27 and 28.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Sneha S K in Bengaluru)
