Novo Nordisk loses appeal case on illegal advertisement

By order of 29 August 2018, The Eastern High Court maintained that Novo Nordisk had failed to comply with the ban on marketing of prescription-only medicinal products.

The non-performance consisted in Novo Nordisk's issuing of a press release regarding the diabetes drug Tresiba that lacked scientific foundation in the underlying study and consequently contained misleading information. Hence, the press release did not fall within the exception in Section 2(7) of the Danish Executive Order on Advertisement of Medicinal Products. Instead, the press release was considered to constitute illegal advertisement for a prescription-only medicinal product.

The Eastern High Court upheld the preliminary injunction granted by the Maritime and Commercial High Court, thereby attaching no importance to the fact that Novo Nordisk in the case before the Maritime and Commercial High Court had already made a statement to refrain from using the press release.

The order by the Eastern High Court has not been published.

Read our previously published article on the decision from the Maritime and Commercial High Court:in the March edition:
"Novo Nordisk's press release was illegal advertisement"

A prior version of this post was originally published by the same authors in Practical Law – Life Sciences, September 2018 Issue (Thomson Reuters).