Comment by Riaz Haq on December 20, 2025 at 9:31pm

@SushantS

In the eight months since it was approved for sale, Mounjaro – a jab that regulates blood sugar and suppresses appetite to help with diabetes and obesity – is now India’s highest-selling drug, overtaking antibiotics.


https://x.com/sushantsin/status/2002341360037478789?s=61&t=mgTx...

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India’s doctors sound alarm over boom in availability of weight loss jabs
Country is facing epidemic of diabetes and obesity, but experts say widespread and unregulated use of weight loss drugs could put patients at risk

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/20/rindia-doctors-sound-...


ndia’s leading doctors have warned of the dangers of an unregulated boom in weight loss injections, and emphasised they are not a magic pill to solve the country’s growing epidemic of diabetes and obesity.

Demand for appetite-suppressing drugs such as Mounjaro, Wegovy and Ozempic has surged since they were introduced into the Indian market this year.

In the eight months since it was approved for sale, Mounjaro – a jab that regulates blood sugar and suppresses appetite to help with diabetes and obesity – is now India’s highest-selling drug, overtaking antibiotics.

Its commercial success has led its producer, the drug company Eli Lilly, to begin trials on a similar drug that works on suppressing appetite, and could be released in India in pill form by next year.

An Ozempic jab pen in a read superhero cap with a swirl of pink and white lines behind

An Eli Lilly spokesperson said: “Rising urbanisation, sedentary lifestyles, and changing diets have made weight management a growing public health priority. This convergence of high unmet need, growing awareness and improving access to innovative therapies makes India a significant market for weight loss drugs.”

The drug company Novo Nordisk is also pushing for a share of the market. It launched Ozempic this month at the competitively low price of 8,800 rupees (£73) for four jabs a month, compared with the 14,000 rupees (£115) monthly cost of Mounjaro – prices beyond the reach of the average Indian household.

But by March next year, the drug company patents on many of these semaglutide drugs is due to expire in India. This will open the market to domestic companies who are developing their own cheaper versions, which are expected to flood the market and make prices more affordable. Experts predict the market for weight loss drugs in India will hit $150bn (£112bn) a year by the end of the decade.

Many medical professionals and patients have hailed the wide access to these jabs as a long-overdue necessity for India, which is in the grips of a surge in obesity and diabetes that threatens to overwhelm the country’s already underfunded and overburdened healthcare system.

According to experts, diabetes and obesity are likely to become the biggest killers in India by 2030. A recent global analysis found that India had roughly 212 million adults with diabetes, accounting for more than a quarter of the global total.

A study by the Lancet found India had about 180 million adults who were overweight or obese in 2021 – and by 2050, this could increase to 450 million, equating to almost a third of India’spredicted adult population.

Mohit Bhandari, one of India’s leading bariatric surgeons, said he believed that the official numbers of people with diabetes and obesity in India were a “significant undercount due to poor data collection” and estimated they were more than 10% higher than government records.

However, Bhandari is among those urging caution at the widespread and unregulated use of weight loss drugs, which he said were already being abused and mis-prescribed with possible long-term consequences.

“The GLP-1 drugs already very important for India, they’re more than welcome,” he said. “However, there are very significant problems and caveats to this. These jabs should be properly controlled by the government.”

Comment by Riaz Haq 8 hours ago

Ultra-processed foods are accelerating India’s nutrition transition, driving obesity and NCDs while deepening the double burden of malnutrition

https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/how-ultra-processed-foods-fu...


Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes, cancers, and chronic respiratory conditions, account for nearly three-quarters of global mortality and pose a significant threat to health systems and economic development. Among the key modifiable risk factors, unhealthy diets have emerged as a central driver, with growing evidence implicating ultra-processed foods (UPFs) as a major contributor to the rising NCD burden.

UPFs are industrial formulations typically made using refined food substances, additives, and preservatives, with minimal or no whole-food content. These products are generally high in saturated fats, free sugars, and sodium, while being low in dietary fibre, protein, and essential micronutrients. The global rise in UPF consumption is closely linked to the nutrition transition, a shift from traditional, minimally processed diets toward energy-dense, convenience-oriented foods. This transition is driven by urbanisation, income growth, globalisation of food systems, aggressive marketing, and changing lifestyles. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) — including India — this transition has occurred rapidly, often without parallel regulatory safeguards, exacerbating the double burden of malnutrition, where undernutrition coexists with diet-related NCDs.

Among the key modifiable risk factors, unhealthy diets have emerged as a central driver, with growing evidence implicating ultra-processed foods (UPFs) as a major contributor to the rising NCD burden.
India provides a compelling case study of the health consequences of dietary transition. According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), dietary risks are among the leading contributors to NCD-related mortality in the country, particularly CVDs and diabetes. Cardiovascular diseases alone accounted for over a quarter of total deaths in India in 2016, while premature deaths from NCDs doubled between 1990 and 2019. National surveys further demonstrate a sharp rise in overweight and obesity across both urban and rural populations. Between 2005–06 and 2019–20, adult overweight and obesity increased by more than 10 percentage points, with worrying trends also observed among children and adolescents. Early onset of obesity substantially increases the lifetime risk of diabetes and CVDs. Dietary pattern analyses in India consistently show that diets high in sweets, salty snacks, and refined carbohydrates are associated with a higher risk of type-2 diabetes and cardiometabolic disorders. These dietary shifts closely mirror increased availability, affordability, and marketing of UPFs.
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Ultra-processed foods have emerged as a central driver of the global NCD epidemic, with converging evidence from epidemiology, clinical trials, and food systems research linking their dominance in modern diets to rising rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality. Addressing the UPF-NCD nexus requires a comprehensive food-systems response that combines stringent regulation, fiscal measures, consumer education, effective use of advertising and marketing, and industry accountability. Ensuring the procurement of healthy foods and beverages within processed-food guidelines by the government is necessary to establish a uniform procurement process across diverse institutions, including hospitals, schools, government offices, and universities. Reducing reliance on ultra-processed foods and promoting minimally processed, nutrient-rich diets is not only a public health imperative but also essential for achieving sustainable development and long-term population health.

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