Novo Nordisk, which is known for making drugs to combat diabetes, haemophilia and other chronic diseases, recently marked the company’s centenary.
The need to inject insulin every day prevents many diabetic patients from going for therapy, but two years from now, the situation could change, said Vikrant Shrotriya, India managing director and corporate vice-president of Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk.
The company is looking to launch its once-a-week insulin, Icodec, in India by mid-2025.
“The biggest news in the pharmaceutical industry at present is once-a-week insulin and we are working on Icodec. We would like to launch it in India very soon,” said Shrotriya in an interaction with Moneycontrol and added that the firm is already working on the launch plans.
He said that the pharma sector is excited with the arrival of an effective anti-obesity treatment, as, thus far, the majority of those in need had been struggling with pharmacological therapies for weight management.
Anti-obesity drug
In the US, injectable anti-obesity drugs and medicines for diabetes, which induce weight loss, such as Wegovy and Ozempic by Novo Nordisk, and Mounjaro by Eli Lilly are gaining popularity. Some research studies have shown that they lead to an average weight loss of 15-21 percent when used consistently.
Wegovy contains the active ingredient Semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA), which lowers blood sugar levels, and controls insulin. It is critical for persons with Type 2 diabetes.
The US Food and Drug Administrator (USFDA) has approved its two versions in injectable form — Wegovy and Ozempic (lower dose) — over the last few years.
While Ozempic (1 mg once weekly) was approved primarily for diabetes, approval for Wegovy injection (2.4 mg once weekly) came for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight with at least one weight-related condition, such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes or high cholesterol, in addition to a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity.
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Shrotriya said there is a plan to launch Wegovy in India, but it may not happen very soon.
Focus on new therapies
The India head of Novo Nordisk also shared that the firm, which recently completed 100 years of its business, is also working on areas like non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH, a type of liver inflammation), Alzheimer's disease and cardio-vascular diseases, apart from some of the newer therapy areas.
“Our innovation pipeline is extremely strong to carry forward some of the new innovations and therapies in the future,” he said. “The good part is that, for virtually all these products, we have got trial centres in India. So it's not that India is just a centre where we launch the product but is also part of all these trials,” he said.
‘Impressed with appetite for innovation’
Shrotriya said that he is hugely impressed with India's appetite for embracing innovation.
“Normally people think that India is a pharmacy of the world and all generics and getting the me-too drugs, but when we have launched this innovation in India, I am hugely impressed that with awareness level, the competencies of doctors, and the quest to understand newer molecules and treatment algorithms,” he said.
It was for this reason, Shrotriya said, that the company decided to launch Semaglutide (for diabetes) in oral form in India. India is only the fifth country where it is being launched.
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