WEIGHING TREATMENT CHOICES
For 53-year-old IT engineer Sankari Roy, the shift could be significant.
After being diagnosed with high blood sugar, she considered weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. But at up to US$400 a month, the cost was prohibitive.
Now, more affordable alternatives could provide her a new lifeline.
“If I have like one or two doses, maybe it would help and I can see some quick benefit out of it,” she said, adding that she is weighing whether to begin treatment.
But for Roy’s family, affordability is only part of the equation.
Her son, Aarman, has reservations about the safety of these drugs.
“You don’t know how it will map out in your body or if it has long-term effects, which is something that I worry about,” he said.
Their concerns echo a broader dilemma facing India, where doctors warn of a growing “diabesity” crisis – a dual burden of diabetes and obesity driven by sedentary lifestyles and poor diets.
More than 300 million Indians – about one in four – are estimated to be overweight or obese, while around 90 million are living with diabetes.
Historically, access to GLP-1 treatments has been limited by high costs.
But that may now change rapidly, as these medicines become more widely available and far more affordable.
At least half a dozen Indian pharmaceutical companies have launched generic semaglutide products, with distribution expanding from online platforms to neighbourhood pharmacies.
The surge in availability has already driven up demand.
Dr Manuj Sondhi, a senior consultant physician and diabetologist at Nirvana Clinic, said interest has spiked not only among patients with medical needs, but also those seeking weight loss for cosmetic reasons.
The real benefit may be in preventing more serious diseases, he added.
“Obesity itself is a risk factor for a lot of metabolic issues. It can increase your cardiac risk, it can increase chances of hypertension and diabetes,” he noted.
“Treating obesity, especially in patients who have greater body mass index, these medications are going to be very useful.”
