Ozempic just got cheap enough to change the world |
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Ozempic just got cheap enough to change the world
Why the $14 drug could reshape global health.
By now, Ozempic needs no introduction in America. One in 8 American adults now takes a GLP-1 drug of some kind. But even as millions of people in wealthy countries have benefitted from these drugs, they have remained out of reach for most of the world.
But for a country of 1.4 billion people, this medication just got a lot more accessible.
Last month, a key patent on semaglutide — the GLP-1 sold as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus — expired in India, a country known for making affordable drugs at scale. Within days, at least a half-dozen Indian drugmakers had launched generic semaglutide, with more than 40 expected to follow. The cheapest version costs about $14 a month. The same drug goes for as much as $349 a month in the US without insurance (where patents don’t expire until 2032).
A key patent on semaglutide – the GLP-1 sold as Ozempic and Wegovy – just expired in India, and drugmakers there are already selling their own versions for as little as $14 a month. The same drug can cost up to $349 a month in the US.
These drugs are often talked about as a weight-loss drug, but their bigger promise is in treating obesity, diabetes, and heart disease risk all at once, a cluster of conditions that kills millions of Indians every year.
India is unusually well-positioned to benefit. Most diabetes care there runs through private doctors, so cheap generics can reach patients without waiting on the government.
And the stakes are huge. There are early signs that GLP-1s can improve the health of whole populations, not just individuals. If they do the same in India, it could be one of the biggest public health wins in a generation.
GLP-1s are often talked about as weight-loss drugs. But semaglutide’s bigger significance may be that it can treat a cluster of related metabolic diseases — especially obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular risk — all at once.
That matters a lot in India. The country has one of the largest diabetic populations in the world by sheer number — more than 100 million people are estimated to be living with some form of the disease. And 350 million people there live with obesity. Heart attacks and strokes, which are lumped together under cardiovascular disease, claim 2.8 million lives a year in India, and strike nearly a decade earlier on average than in high-income countries.
Those numbers have been........