US pharma major Eli Lilly on Thursday launched its global bestseller anti-obesity and diabetes drug Mounjaro (tirzepatide) in India.
Priced at Rs 14,000 for a 2.5 mg monthly dose (Rs 3,500 per vial), and Rs 17,500 (Rs 4,375 per vial) for a 5 mg monthly dose, the drug – to be taken weekly – will be available here at a fraction of the cost it is currently sold in the US ($1,000 per monthly dose).
Eli Lilly (India) had earlier told FE that it will price its drug competitively for the Indian market, saying that “the pricing strategy in India will reflect the medicine’s efficacy and the significant value it brings in reducing the overall health and economic burden of type 2 diabetes and obesity. We anticipate a positive response from the Indian market”.
Anti-obesity drugs Wegovy and Ozempic (manufactured by Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk) and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro have made waves across the world since their launch in recent years.
Novo Nordisk had initially announced launch of its injectible Wegovy in India in 2026, but sources say the launch could happen sooner. The company launched an oral formulation identical to Wegovy — Rybelsus — in India in 2022, which is a market leader since, but the oral offering only depicts a 50% efficacy compared with its injectible counterpart.
In 2023, Novo Nordisk’s share price surged by over four times from what it had been just five years ago — and it not only became Europe’s most valuable company but also had a market capitalisation higher than its native country, Denmark’s GDP. In 2022, over 65% of all drug prescriptions in the US were for Ozempic alone.
Dr Ambrish Mithal, chairman and head of endocrinology and diabetes at Max Healthcare, Delhi, told FE: “The launch is a welcome step. Mounjaro is at the moment the most powerful anti-obesity drug globally. I am already flooded with requests for prescriptions. But I advise people to take the drug only under medical advice and supervision as there might be potential side effects too.”
Commenting on the launch, Winselow Tucker, president and general manager, Lilly India, said: “The dual burden of obesity and type 2 diabetes is rapidly emerging as a major public health challenge in India. Lilly is committed to collaborating with the government and industry to promote awareness and improve the prevention and management of these diseases.”
Launched after the approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), Mounjaro activates both GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide) and GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) hormone receptors.
The existing anti-obesity drug choice in India is poor, but domestic pharma firms are already working to come up with generic versions of semiglutide, the key drug in the GLP-1 class.
While Sun Pharma is working on an anti-obesity drug, utreglutide, Cipla is coming up with a generic and affordable version of Wegovy, and is eyeing a deal with Eli Lilly to market its drug in the country. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories is also working on a generic version of Wegovy. Biocon, on the other hand, is working on GLP-1 therapies, and has got approval for liraglutide. Natco Pharma is also developing a generic version of Ozempic.
The interest in these drugs is justified. In India, these companies will compete for a market that constitutes about 101 million diabetic patients, with nearly 50% of these being inadequately treated with suboptimal glycemic control.
In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) had stated that one in eight people in the world lived with obesity—and that obesity was responsible for 44% of all diabetes cases, 23% of ischemic heart diseases, and 7-41% of all cancer cases. A 2024 Lancet study focused on India found that at least 44 million women and 26 million men who were over 20 years old were clinically obese.
Experts, however, said even though these drugs will have more takers for weight control, companies are not open in terms of advising these drugs specifically for weight management. For instance, Eli Lilly says for Mounjaro that the drug will be used as “an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for chronic weight management in adults”.