SHAKING IT UP

AMERICAN PHARMA MAJOR ELI LILLY SEES INDIA AS ITS LAUNCHPAD FOR A NEW GROWTH TRAJECTORY, USING ITS NEW DRUGS FOR DIABETES AND OBESITY AS THE FUEL. WILL THIS STRATEGIC PIVOT WORK?

- NEETU CHANDRA SHARMA

SO YOU DRIVE to the local park for your morning walk, drive and take a Metro to your office, where you grab the lift to the third floor, and then you repeat the commute in the evening. If you have to queue up for an autorickshaw, you crib about last-mile connectivity to your doorstep, instead of walking that mile.

That’s rising urbanisation and sedentary lifestyles for you. The bane of modern India. But they are a boon for pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly & Co, whose 146-year history has been powered by a list of firsts: the first treatment for pernicious anaemia, the first mass-produced antibiotic, the mass-produced Salk polio vaccine, human insulin, and pills for clinical depression and schizophrenia, among others.

Lilly is now betting that its drugs for obesity and diabetes will power its revenues into a higher trajectory. Especially as obesity and diabetes are like the proverbial chicken and egg situation: which came first? Lilly’s portfolio also has your heart covered (obesity and diabetes can get your heart).

RESPONDING TO THE DUAL CRISIS

US-based Lilly is no stranger to India. In 1993, it set up a unit to bring its treatments for diabetes, a range of cancers, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, men’s health, and growth hormone deficiency.

Now, it aims to bring to India its hugely successful drug Mounjaro that is used to treat Type 2 diabetes and as an anti-obesity drug for adults. In the US, Lilly has launched two different brands: Zepbound for obesity; and Mounjaro for Type 2 diabetes. In both, the active ingredient is tirzepatide. Mounjaro’s revenue exceeded $5 billion in 2023, its first full year on the market.

According to the FDA, approximately 70% of American adults are obese or overweight, and many of those overweight have a weight-related condition.