On 5 August 2026, Novo Nordisk announced that The Hague District Court granted a preliminary injunction (PI) preventing Ceban Ziekenhuisfarmacie B.V. (a retail pharmacy based in the Netherlands) from selling a compounded semaglutide nasal spray under the name Semanova. To date, no nasal spray formulations of semaglutide have been given regulatory approval anywhere in the world.
Novo Nordisk’s European compound patent for semaglutide (EP 1 863 839) expired in March 2026. In the Netherlands, Novo Nordisk holds a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) extending patent protection over semaglutide until 19 March 2031.
The court found that Ceban’s nasal spray infringed Novo Nordisk’s Dutch SPC for semaglutide. As a result, the court has ordered Ceban to cease the infringing activities, remove product listings, disclose commercial supply chain information and reimburse Novo Nordisk’s legal costs.
According to JUVE Patent, Ceban’s defence relied on the pharmacy compounding exemption under Article 54c(e) of the Dutch Patent Act, which permits small-scale compounding for individual patients pursuant to a medical prescription. The court found that Ceban’s resale of nasal sprays to other pharmacies and registration in the Dutch drug database fell outside of this exemption.
In Europe, Novo Nordisk markets semaglutide as Wegovy® for weight loss (subcutaneous injectable (0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg or 2.4 mg standard dose or 7.2 mg high dose) or oral pill), and as Ozempic® (once-weekly subcutaneous injectable) and Rybelsus® (once-daily oral pill) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Generic semaglutide products are yet to launch in Europe but have launched in India in March 2026 (including by Dr Reddy’s, Zydus, Alkem, Sun Pharma and Glenmark) and Canada in May 2026 (by Apotex and Dr Reddy’s). Apotex received the first US FDA Tentative Approval for its generic semaglutide ANDA in April 2026, giving it an opportunity to be one of the first to launch generic Ozempic® in the US following expiry of Novo Nordisk’s exclusivity/patents and subject to ongoing US patent infringement litigation.