As we have observed already, anti-obesity drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic (made by Novo Nordisk) and tirzepatide (made by Eli Lilly) have made waves the world over. They are set to enter the Indian market in 2025.
Both the companies intend to price their drugs competitively for the Indian market.
Novo Nordisk planned to bring its anti-obeslty drugs to India in 2026, but could prepone it to match the Eli Lilly’s move to bring its product a year earlier, say 2025.
Many celebrities too have used these weight losing drugs, though they generally deny taking these medicines.
Domestic companies in India too are planning to introduce anti-obesity drugs. Sun Pharma is working on utreglutide. Cipla intends to introduce a generic version of Wegovy. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories too would like to introduce a generic version of Wegovy. Biocon is working on GLP-1 therapies and has received approval for liraglutide. Natco is developing a generic version of Ozempic.
The interest in this area could be attributed to WHO’s assessment that one in eight people in the world lived with obesity and obesity is the main cause of diabetes (44 percent).
In India, according to a Lancet study, 44 million women and 25 million women over 20 years of age are clinically obese.
People from developing countries try to obtain anti-obesity drugs through grey market or travel to foreign countries to access them. This could be called ‘Ozempic tourism.’
Health insurance policies in India exclude obesity treatments. In the absence of insurance, these drugs will be prohibitively expensive — almost $1000 a month. In future insurance may cover the anti-obesity treatment as obesity is recognized as a chronic condition with several co-morbidities.
The existing anti-obesity drug choice in India is poor — patients take orlisat, sibutramine, etc. These are not effective. These have lot of side effects. Therefore, the new GLP-1 pathway is a better choice.
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