India’s cheap weight-loss drugs are going global

For millions of people living with obesity, weight loss drugs have been hailed as a game changer.

They’re known as GLP-1s but are more commonly known by their trade names: Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. So far they’ve only been made by two companies in Denmark and the US and they’re pretty expensive. But now the patents for these drugs have expired in China and India, which means pharmaceutical companies in those countries can now make cheaper copies.

India has a reputation as the "pharmacy of the world" because of its ability to turn expensive medicines into affordable mass-market products. The country is the world's largest supplier of generic medicines. Indian companies are already starting to produce and sell these weight loss drugs.

So what impact will this have on the cost and supply of weight loss drugs in India and around the world? Archana Shukla, the BBC’s India business correspondent in Mumbai, tells us why the expiry of the patents is such a big deal. And BBC Health correspondent James Gallagher explains how these drugs work.

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