Category: 3. Business

India’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 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.”

Bhandari warned of the risks of allowing the drugs to be prescribed by pharmacists and GPs, many of whom are connected to certain chemist shops and benefit financially from putting patients on these jabs. The jabs are also increasingly available in gyms and beauty clinics.

“There needs to be rigorous screening and check-ups of patients being put on these drugs,” Bhandari said. “They cause a lot of muscle loss, they can cause pancreatitis, gallstones, even blindness in some patients with certain conditions, so this regulation is crucial.”

He called on the government to limit who can prescribe the drugs to a board of specialist doctors who would put patients on a long-term programme. “No other country will have people taking these drugs on the same scale as in India,” he said. “It means the scale of complications could get very high if there’s no strict discipline in how they are given out to patients. The drugs are good but only in safe hands.”

Vidhi Dua, 36, has diabetes and had struggled with obesity for most of her life. She was prescribed Mounjaro and began taking it in September when her weight reached 95kg (14st).

“I’ve tried so many things before this but I’ve never been able to get my weight down,” she said. “I’m hopeful this will work and I can finally get off insulin but it’s not easy, there are very difficult side effects on the stomach and the muscles. I think it’s worrying this has become the latest fad just for cosmetic weight loss. I don’t think people understand the impact they have on the body.”

Anoop Misra, one of India’s most prominent endocrinologists working at Fortis hospital in Delhi, echoed the warnings. Misra said that poor dietary habits, sedentary lifestyles and environmental pollution were likely to be the key drivers of the surge in diabetes and obesity in India, which is evident in the affluent urban elite and poorer rural communities.

Misra said he was seeing an unparalleled demand for the drugs and was now prescribing them to three to seven patients a day, after thorough counselling. He predicted that once the non-patented versions are approved for sale next year, India will become one of the world’s biggest and cheapest markets for GLP-1 drugs.

Nonetheless, he emphasised that treating the “nationwide epidemic” of obesity and diabetes required widespread lifestyle changes and education, and weight loss jabs were only part of the solution.

“These drugs can help, but they can not solve India’s obesity and diabetes crisis,” he said. “For most people, the foundation must remain nutrition education, healthier diets, exercise, and affordable weight loss medications when necessary.

“A worrying trend is people seeking these drugs simply because they repeatedly default on diet and exercise. Medication cannot replace lifestyle change.”

Misra said that there were still significant challenges ahead for India in its battle with obesity and diabetes, many of them cultural.

“Many women tell me that if they stop preparing the calorie-dense, oil-laden dishes their husbands prefer, it leads to anger and conflict,” he said. “This shows how difficult it is to change dietary patterns in Indian households – even when families know the health risks.”

Oil prices recorded a second steep weekly loss, as market participants continued to digest the growing prospects of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

This has also offset concerns about supply disruption in the midst of simmering tension between the US and Venezuela. Together with the Russia-Ukraine talks, these themes have dominated the oil market since last week.

Brent, the benchmark for two thirds of the world’s oil, gained 1.1 per cent to close at $60.47 a barrel on Friday. West Texas Intermediate, (WTI), the gauge that tracks US crude, gained 0.9 per cent to settle above $56.6 a barrel. That put Brent and WTI down ​about 1 per cent this week after both crude benchmarks fell about 4 per cent last week.

In the year to date, Brent has now given up 20 per cent, while WTI has receded by 22 per cent.

The week’s developments have shown signs of extending oil’s reduction, as market participants price in a large oversupply for early 2026, said Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer of Dubai-based Century Financial.

Crude prices are “expected to demonstrate strong bearish momentum with the growing prominence of oversupply instead of geopolitical risks”, he said.

“Expectations for a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine further pressured oil, as markets expect loosening of sanctions and a potential rise in Russian exports, which further support the oversupply theme.”

Negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine have reached a “major moment”, UK Defence Secretary John Healey said this week, despite warnings that the peace deal is an “illusion” that Russia will not accept.

The outcome of high-level talks involving top US envoys in Berlin, where Ukraine appeared to accept that any deal would mean it could not join Nato, has been well received in Washington.

US President Donald Trump hailed potential progress from “very long and very good talks” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Nato.

“I think we’re closer now than we have been ever,” Mr Trump said.

Meanwhile, oil prices rose early on Wednesday as supply concerns increased after Mr Trump ordered a “complete and total” blockade of sanctioned oil tankers moving in and out of Venezuela – part of continuing US military action against the South American country.