We must stay vigilant on false patent extensions and the non-clinical use of weight-loss drugs

It is welcome that the Delhi high court has rejected Novo Nordisk’s effort to extend its patent on specific formulations of the blockbuster drug semaglutide, sold as Ozempic to treat diabetes and as Wegovy for obesity. In 2013, India’s Supreme Court had set a precedent on patent ‘evergreening’ by way of offering it in a different form; it dismissed Novartis’s claim that its new variant of Glivec (effective against leukemia) deserved a separate patent from its original formulation since it offered better bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy without back-up evidence.

For drugs, India now follows product patents in line with World Trade Organization norms, but does not indulge Big Pharma the way the US and EU often do by allowing patent extensions on flimsy grounds.The original molecule of Ozempic lost its patent monopoly last year and its specific formulations will go off-patent in March 2026. The court has let Dr Reddy’s make and export a generic version of semaglutide to markets where the drug has no patent shield, while barring sales in India until that point.This is how it ought to be.

India is a relatively poor country that cannot let drugs stay expensive for too long, as patent rollovers ensure, and must let generic-drug rivalry drive down prices to the extent possible. Letting Novo Nordisk’s injectables rule our market longer could set a precedent that other pharma players could exploit to keep vital medicines out of popular reach.

Mounjaro, Eli Lilly’s brand of another weight-loss drug called tirzepatide, was launched this March. In just over half a year, it had toppled GlaxoSmithKline’s antibiotic Augmentin as India’s largest selling medicine by value, with sales reported at ₹100 crore in October.