Mumbai: Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk‘s diabetes and weight-loss molecule semaglutide is gaining ground on Eli Lilly‘s tirzepatide in India’s anti-obesity and GLP-1 market ahead of the March 21 expiry of semaglutide’s patent.
Novo sells semaglutide under its own brands Ozempic and Wegovy and as Poviztra through a marketing tie-up with Emcure. Lilly sells tirzepatide as its own Mounjaro and as Yurpeak through marketing collaboration with Cipla.
While Mounjaro has held the lion’s share of the injectable GLP-1 segment since its launch in India in March 2025, Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide’s combined market share has crossed more than 20%, narrowing the former’s lead.
Data from market tracker PharmaTrac showed in terms of sales volume, semaglutide’s market share has jumped in the last two months to 21% from 13%, after the company announced a steep price cut for Wegovy in November, followed by the launch of Ozempic in December at a much lower price point than Lilly’s drug.
Tirzepatide had 79% share in terms of units sold as of February-end. Experts said broader physician uptake, improved availability, and relatively lower pricing versus competition are helping semaglutide close the gap.
Lower pricing, physician uptake help Novo’s weight-loss drugs’ total market share cross 20%
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“In the last two months, the incremental consumption has come more from semaglutide injections than tirzepatide injections,” said Sheetal Sapale, vice-president, commercial at PharmaTrac. “This indicates more patients are getting onboarded on semaglutide, even though in terms of volume it may be much smaller than tirzepatide.”
Lower prices compared to the rival innovator brand is also aiding sales growth, said experts.Novo’s Ozempic is priced at ₹8,800-₹11,175, while its other semaglutide brand Wegovy costs ₹10,850-₹16,400 for a month. Generics are expected to be launched at ₹3,000-₹5,000, more than half the cost of the innovator molecule. In comparison, Mounjaro costs more than ₹13,000 to about ₹26,000 per injection, based on the dosage. Each injection consists of four monthly shots.
In value terms, semaglutide currently occupies 15% of the market, with 85% coming from tirzepatide. Novo Nordisk’s strategy to in-licence its molecule for marketing to drugmakers Emcure and Abbott will play a key role in expanding its reach beyond the metros to tier-1 and tier-2 cities, said experts.
Recently, Abbott and Novo Nordisk India entered a partnership to commercialise another brand of Novo’s blockbuster GLP-1 drug, Ozempic.
“This is the first time that Novo has in-licensed with Emcure and Abbott with different brand names, which only says that they want to penetrate the market deeper and better,” said Rajiv Kovil, a diabetologist.
“This is a new strategy for them, which I think will work because there will be a lot of people talking about similar science along with the generic companies, and this will create the overall noise among doctors about their market size,” he said. India’s broader anti-obesity drug market has grown sharply in the past year, expanding nearly threefold to more than ₹1,500 crore.