The Delhi High Court on December 10 allowed Sun Pharma to manufacture and export its version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
The order comes almost a week after a similar relief was granted to Dr Reddy’s Lab, signalling a trend that could reshape India’s role as a global supplier of obesity and diabetes drugs.
Like in the Dr Reddy’s case, Sun Pharma, too, can’t sell the drug in India until the patent expires in March.
The decision comes in the middle of an escalating patent dispute between the Danish drugmaker and Indian generics players over access to the fast-growing GLP-1 market.
According to a CNBC-TV18 report, the order was conditional to Sun Pharma filing an undertaking that it will not sell semaglutide-based products in India during the patent term.
Novo Nordisk’s has filed patent infringement cases in the Delhi High Court. The drug maker holds two patents on semaglutide in India.
The composition patent, which expired in September 2024, opened the door for generic development. It also has a formulation and delivery patent, valid until March 2026, which is at the core of the ongoing litigation.
The expiry of the basic patent triggered aggressive interest from Indian pharma majors in the GLP-1 segment, a category that has seen explosive global growth driven by demand for weight-loss therapies.
Sun Pharma, which had indicated plans to enter the segment, can now leverage export opportunities in markets where Novo Nordisk does not have patent protection.
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