In September 2017, Novo Nordisk published a press release regarding its product Tresiba®. Sanofi-Aventis found it to contain misleading information about Tresiba® and two of Sanofi-Aventis' medicinal products, Lantus® and Toujeo®. Therefore, Sanofi Aventis filed an application for a preliminary injunction against Novo Nordisk's use of the press release.

The court found that the conclusions presented in the press release did not have scientific basis in the underlying study, why the press release contained misleading and inaccurate information. The press release did therefore not fall under the exemption in Section 2(7) of the Executive Order on Advertisement of Medicinal Products. Instead, the press release was considered as illegal advertisement of a prescription-only medicinal product. Also, the court found that Novo Nordisk had breached the Danish Marketing Practices Act by publishing such misleading information.

The decision can be found here (in Danish)

A prior version of this post was originally published by the same authors in Practical Law – Life Sciences, March 2017 Issue (Thomson Reuters).