Eli Lilly and Co. has begun selling its blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drug Mounjaro in India, pipping rivals in a country that has the world’s third-largest number of obese people.
The American drugmaker will roll out tirzepatide, sold under the brand name Mounjaro, in single-dose vials after receiving the marketing approval from the India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, it said in a statement Thursday.
The 2.5 mg vial is priced at 3,500 rupees ($40.5) and the 5 mg vial is priced at 4,375 rupees, a spokesperson said in an emailed response to Bloomberg News. In comparison, a 2.5 mg dosage would roughly cost about $568 for the 2.5 mg vial in the US, nearly fourteen-fold more.
“This India-specific pricing reflects Lilly’s commitment to expanding access to innovative treatments in the country,” the spokesperson wrote.
Mounjaro’s launch will give Eli Lilly the first-mover advantage in the country where the unmet demand was so high that users were resorting to procuring anti-obesity drugs from the gray market. Top rival Novo Nordisk A/S is yet to announce a timeline for launching its obesity therapy Wegovy in India.
India has about 100 million people living with diabetes and obesity each, the company said in a statement. Besides being a major risk factor for diabetes, obesity is also linked to more than 200 health complications, including hypertension, coronary heart disease and obstructive sleep apnea.
“The dual burden of obesity and type 2 diabetes is rapidly emerging as a major public health challenge in India,” said Winselow Tucker, Lilly India’s president in the statement. “Lilly is committed to collaborating with the government and industry to promote awareness and improve the prevention and management of these diseases.”
Previously, Rybelsus — an approved diabetes drug in pill form — was also used for weight loss by patients in India. Launched in 2022, it contains the same ingredient semaglutide as Wegovy and Ozempic, but is considered less effective than the blockbuster injectables.
A range of generic weight-loss drugs are forecast to hit the market when patents of semaglutide, used to make Novo’s weight loss medicine, start to expire in 2026.
Locally, India’s largest pharma firm Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is developing its own weight-loss formulation, while Cipla Ltd. and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. are working on generic versions. Biocon Ltd. and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. are banking on generics of an earlier generation of obesity treatment, a liraglutide injectable sold by Novo Nordisk as Saxenda.
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