India Generic Semaglutide Patent Expiry Reshapes Obesity Market
India's patent on semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy — expires on March 20, unleashing roughly 50 branded generic versions onto the market at a fraction of current prices. This could dramatically widen access to weight-loss drugs across lower- and middle-income countries, where the branded versions remain unaffordable for most patients. The shift has the potential to reshape the global obesity treatment landscape in a way that the original rollout never did.
Semaglutide was developed by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, which has built a near-monopoly on the GLP-1 receptor agonist market since Ozempic's 2017 approval for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy's 2021 approval for obesity. Branded versions currently cost between $900 and $1,300 per month in the United States wit…
