We wanted to ensure a steady supply of Ozempic: Vikrant Shrotriya of Novo Nordis |
Ozempic has to be the word of the year, paid marketing aside. The drug meant for treating type-2 diabetes has held the curiosity of health and lifestyle enthusiasts looking to drop significant weight.
By the admission of Vikrant Shrotriya, managing director of Novo Nordisk India, the drug is set to rewrite the health and disease risk on par with artificial intelligence’s impact on the world. He calls it a watershed moment, akin to the discovery of penicillin and antibiotics which changed the history of medicine in general.
The wonder drug, which falls under the class of semaglutides, was cleared for use in adults with type-2 diabetes (insulin deficient diabetes / non-genetic) in September this year. The drug, manufactured by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, was finally launched in India on Friday as a weekly sub-cutaneous injection starting with a dosage of 0.25 mg for the first four weeks, followed by escalating dosage of up to 2 mg per week, on a case-to-case basis.
Shrotriya announced that the drug will be priced at Rs 2,200 per week (inclusive of taxes) for a dosage of 0.25 mg, at the launch. He added that the drug will now be available at a price comparable to insulin, making it accessible to patients across the spectrum.
Abbott India, which already distributes Novo Nordisk’s insulin product Human Mixtard, will be offering its end-to-end cold-chain service to distribute Ozempic across India. “If Human Mixtard is available, then our medicines are available there too,” said Shrotriya in an interview with Forbes India.
The drug enters the Indian market at a time when its patent is set to expire by March 2026 in India, opening up the market to cheaper generic competitors including those manufactured by Dr Reddy’s and Sun Pharma. Novo Nordisk has already taken these Indian pharma companies to court to ensure that their semaglutides are not launched in the market before its patent expiry, and to stop the export of the competitors’ products to other geographies where its patent has expired. However, the Delhi High Court refused to grant an interim injunction on Novo Nordisk’s plea to stop the exports of Dr Reddy’s semaglutides, while the plea against Sun Pharma’s exports has been referred to a bench.
Novo Nordisk’s late entry into the Indian market with its weight-loss specific semaglutide injection, WeGovy, has already cost it market leadership. As of October 2025, international competitor Eli Lilly’s weight-loss semaglutide drug Mounjaro became India’s top-selling drug by value. Novo Nordisk reacted by reducing the price of WeGovy by nearly 37 percent to increase accessibility.
Shrotriya is not worried by these going-ons as he believes that the pharma manufacturers are merely at the start of the journey and “there isn’t much to lose”. In the spirit of the season, he calls it “the........