India’s ‘magic pill’ moment

How the rush to release affordable and accessible versions of weight loss drugs could reshape the fight against ‘diabesity’

- SREYA DEB

WITH INDIA PRIMED for newer and cheaper GLP-1 drugs, with some already having hit the market - thanks to the expiry of the patent on semaglutide, the molecule behind Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk's blockbuster weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, on March 20 - experts believe that the latest development could reshape the fight against'diabesity'and ease the country's huge metabolic disease burden.

As per data from an Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study, about 101 million Indians are living with diabetes and 136 million with prediabetes. The same report also highlighted an enormous parallel burden of excess weight, estimating about 254 million people with generalised obesity and 351 million with abdominal obesity.

GLP-1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1) receptoragonists such as semaglutide are considered a highly effective class of drugs for managing type 2 diabetes and promoting significant weight loss. They are being hailed by many as game changers, as they have been found to offer results that other previous treatments could not match.

So far, prices of Ozempic and WeGovy, two of the currently available weight-loss drugs in the country, were priced anywhere %8,000 and %16,000 or more, besides Rybelsus, which is an oral tablet, coming for 2,300 to 3,300.

On Saturday, after the expiry of Novo Nordisk’s patent, seven pharma companies launched generic, cheaper versions of semaglutide, ranging from %1,290 to %4,200 per month. These prices are nearly 65-90% cheaper than the patented drug that was available thus far.