The rise of GLP-1 therapies has transformed diabetes and obesity treatment. Following semaglutide patent expiry in India in March 2026, multiple companies entered the market simultaneously. Pharma Industrial India spoke with industry leaders about the opportunities, challenges, and future of this rapidly evolving therapeutic segment.

The Next Chapter of GLP-1 is Integration: Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMeD

India is entering a new phase in diabetes and obesity care as GLP-1 therapies spread beyond diabetes treatment into a broader health care shift affecting pharma, devices, diagnostics, prevention, and patient behavior.

Globally, GLP-1 receptor agonists are seen as a key frontier in chronic disease care. In India, with more than 100 million people living with diabetes and many more overweight, pre-diabetic, or undiagnosed, this is more than a drug trend: it signals a new ecosystem for managing metabolic disease.

For Indian health care, the opportunity is clear but so is the test: Can India build an integrated, affordable, tech-enabled care model around GLP-1 therapies?

GLP-1 adoption reflects a broader shift from post-diagnosis sugar control to prevention, weight management, cardiovascular risk reduction, and long-term metabolic outcomes especially relevant as diabetes rises among younger Indians.

Their appeal lies in benefits beyond glycemic control, including weight loss and improved metabolic health expanding demand beyond traditional diabetes care.

India’s GLP-1 market is shifting rapidly: therapies that were niche and premium a year ago are now among the most disruptive forces in Indian pharma.

Industry estimates suggest India’s semaglutide market rose from about INR 527 crore (March 2025) to nearly INR 1,600 crore (March 2026), driven largely by branded generics from major Indian firms such as Torrent, Dr. Reddy’s, Zydus, Lupin, Sun Pharma, and Alkem.

This signals a shift from premium imports to wider access; with more competition and local players, GLP-1s could move from elite use to mainstream chronic-care pathways.

For pharma, GLP-1s may be the decade’s biggest commercial category, pushing Indian companies toward partnerships, biosimilar pathways, and future domestic production as patents expire.

Innovators are already developing next-generation obesity and metabolic drugs beyond today’s GLP-1 pathways. For India, the bigger play is building capabilities in manufacturing, devices, diagnostics, digital monitoring, and integrated diabetes-care ecosystems, and not just in consuming prescribed therapies.

• Affordability remains the key barrier: If advanced therapies stay limited to premium urban markets, their public-health impact will be small. Scaling domestic capacity, technology transfer, and faster access pathways are essential. Policy backing matters, for example, the Bio Pharma SHAKTI scheme (INR 10, 000 crore over 5 years).
• The GLP-1 story also reshapes MedTech: Outcomes improve when drugs are paired with better delivery devices, diagnostics, monitoring, adherence tools, and prevention support. As GLP-1 use grows, demand should rise for glucose monitoring, delivery systems, connected platforms, wearables, and digital integration, and patients may adopt continuous monitoring more readily. This opens a major MedTech opportunity. Indian manufacturers can build affordable monitoring ecosystems from glucometers and Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) to innovative drug delivery, smart injectables and telehealth-enabled platforms suited to local needs.

India should avoid becoming only a buyer of imported highend diabetes technology. With ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat,’ affordable devices plus digital integration and scalable manufacturing can position India as a global hub for diabetes-management solutions.

The boom may also boost prevention by raising awareness of obesity, nutrition, metabolic health, and early screening and by linking diagnostics, wellness programs, and chronic-care management.

Providers will need stronger counselling, nutrition support, digital follow-up, and long-term management. Diabetes care must shift from isolated prescriptions to coordinated pathways combining clinicians, diagnostics, monitoring, and patient education.

India should also guard against hype and irrational use. GLP1s are promising, but they cannot replace lifestyle change, prevention, and strong primary care, especially given afford ability constraints.

Affordability will shape adoption. Even with branded generics, many patients may still be priced out without better insurance, scaled domestic manufacturing, and public-health integration. So, innovation must widen access, not deepen inequality.

India is at a health care inflection point. The GLP-1 boom is more than a market surge; it signals how chronic disease care will evolve and winners will build affordable, tech-integrated ecosystems, not just import devices and drugs.

India can align pharma innovation with MedTech manufacturing and digital health to shift from a high-burden market to a global leader in affordable metabolic-care solutions.
The path forward is access, indigenous capability, and integrated delivery. Success should be measured not only bysales, but by a healthier, more preventive, and more equitable system for millions of Indians.

The Real GLP-1 Race is Beyond the Molecule: Harshad Lalwani, Founder and CEO, Hummsa Biotech

The semaglutide ‘Day-1’ rush proved India can mobilise manufacturing scale faster than almost anywhere on earth. The factors that will determine success are real peptide synthesis capability at scale, consistent impurity control, cold-chain integrity, and regulatory throughput. We have a strong base and we are building the rest. The countries and companies that master consistent quality at volume, not just lowest price, will hold the durable position. GLP-1 therapies are expected to evolve well beyond current molecules such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, with innovation likely to accelerate faster than many anticipate. The current generation works almost entirely through appetite suppression, which brings muscle loss, gastrointestinal (GI) burden, and aggressive rebound on discontinuation. The next wave will compete on mechanism: therapies that preserve lean mass, address metabolic disease at the tissue level, and serve populations these drugs currently fail, such as Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) patients and the elderly. The molecule is largely settled. The mechanism is wide open. That is where the genuine innovation of the next 5 years will come from.

For injectable peptides at this scale, the honest answer is that India is still building. Large-scale solid-phase peptide synthesis, the lipidation chemistry, preparative purification, and coldchain logistics are non-trivial, and consistent quality at volume is where the real challenge lies. It is less about needing an entirely new paradigm and more about maturing the peptide manufacturing base we have started to build. The companies that invest seriously in that capability now will have a multi-year head start.

Speed without rigor is a short-term win that becomes a long term liability, because GLP-1s are chronic-use drugs where impurity profiles and consistency directly affect patient safety at massive scale. The disciplined players will treat quality as the moat rather than the obstacle. In a market heading toward 50-plus brands, once price advantage erodes, trust and consistency become the only things that actually differentiate one player from another.

We will see the full range. Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) partnerships will scale the generics side efficiently, and contract manufacturing will be a significant business in its own right. Licensing arrangements, both in-licensing global assets and out-licensing Indian innovation, will grow. The more strategic question is whether Indian companies stay purely in the manufacturing layer or begin moving up the value chain toward originating their own assets. Both models will coexist, but they reward very different capabilities.

Delivery technology is going to be one of the defining battlegrounds of the next phase. Oral formats that genuinely solve bioavailability, longer-acting injectables, and combination therapies will separate the leaders from the followers. The strongest opportunities sit where unmet need is the highest: metabolic liver disease, muscle-preserving weight management, cardiometabolic overlap, and underserved patient groups. Delivery innovation is no longer a side feature; it is increasingly the product itself.

Success in the GLP-1 segment will require companies to invest thoughtfully in manufacturing capacity and technology, with a focus on where the market is headed rather than where it stands today. Automation and quality systems in peptide manufacturing are worth serious investment given the volumes coming. The discipline is in sequencing capital: building capacity that matches realistic demand curves rather than over-building into a category where margins will compress quickly. Smart capacity planning will matter as much as the capacity itself.

Scale wins the generics war, but that war ends in margin compression for everyone in it. So, scale alone is not a durable answer. The more interesting capability is ecosystem integration.The best new-age biotech companies are not just innovating on the molecule; they are owning the infrastructure around it.Vertex is the clearest example: with its  Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-based therapy, it did not stop at the science, it built out the treatment infrastructure, the delivery pathways, and the specialised clinical networks needed to actually administer it. That ownership of the surrounding ecosystem is a far deeper moat than the molecule itself, because it is much harder to replicate than a chemical structure.

So, the winners over the next 3 to 5 years will not be defined by R&D or manufacturing scale in isolation. They will be the companies that pair a differentiated asset with ownership of the platform and infrastructure around it: delivery, distribution, and the clinical layer. Manufacturing scale makes you relevant. Innovation makes you competitive. However, owning the ecosystem around your product is what makes you durable.

Scale Alone won’t Win the GLP-1 Race: Vinay K Mayer, Director, Asia Research Partners (ARP)

India is rapidly emerging as a critical hub for GLP-1 manufacturing, particularly as patents for blockbusters like semaglutide begin to expire (starting in 2026 in various regions).

Unlike simple small molecules, GLP-1s are complex peptides. Success depends on mastering Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis (SPPS) at a metric-ton scale. Companies that manufacture their own Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) to control impurity profiles and costs will lead. Maintaining US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-and European Medicines Agency (EMA)-compliant facilities is non-negotiable for export to high-value markets. India can produce these therapies at a fraction of the cost of western counterparts, essential for ‘global south’ access and biosimilar competition.

The current GLP-1 landscape, led by semaglutide and tirzepatide, marks the beginning rather than the culmination of therapeutic innovation in this space. The industry is now moving toward next-generation molecules such as retatrutide, which targets GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors and has demonstrated the potential for even greater weight loss (over 24 percent). Another promising development is the emergence of small-molecule GLP-1 therapies, such as orforglipron, which do not require the strict fasting and water-intake restrictions associated with current oral peptide therapies like Rybelsus. At the same time, GLP-1 therapies are expanding beyond diabetes and obesity into new indications, including Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (MASH), Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and even neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).

Existing pharmaceutical infrastructure provides a strong starting point, but GLP-1 manufacturing introduces complexities that reqiure a more specialised operating model. Peptide synthesis, sterile injectable manufacturing, cold-chain management, device assembly, and precision quality controls demand significantly higher technical sp histication and automation compared to traditional small-molecule manufacturing.

As volumes increase globally, manufacturers will need to rethink production efficiency, scalability, and supply resilience. In many ways, GLP-1 therapies are pushing the industry toward a hybrid model that combines the precision of biologics manufacturing with the scalability expectations of traditional pharma.

Indian firms can achieve this balance by starting clinical trials and stability studies years before patent expiry to enable a‘Day-1’ market entry. They can also leverage India’s mature biosimilar pathway for faster domestic entry while simultaneously conducting global trials to secure approvals in western markets. Equally important is integrating rigorous quality controls directly into the manufacturing process rather than relying solely on end-of-line testing.

Large Indian players such as Biocon, Divi’s, and Syngene are evolving into specialised peptide CDMOs, taking on the manufacturing burden for global innovators. At the same time, Indian companies are increasingly licensing novel molecules from Chinese and western biotechnology firms to commercialise them in markets such as India and Africa, as seen in Lupin’s partnership with Gan & Lee. In parallel, pharmaceutical companies are partnering with digital health platforms to offer integrated “pills+coaching” models.

Advancements in drug delivery technologies—particularly non-peptide oral therapies, long-acting injectables, and combination treatments—have the potential to be true game-changers, significantly expanding patient access and reshaping the future of chronic disease management. Future innovations may include formulations that remain effective for a month rather than a week, thereby improving patient adherence and compliance. Similarly, next-generation delivery systems capable of administering multiple high-viscosity drugs through a single auto-injector could further enhance convenience and treatment outcomes.

Pharma companies should prioritise high-speed, robot-assisted fill-finish lines to reduce human error and contamination. They should also transition from traditional batch processing to continuous peptide synthesis to improve throughput and manufacturing efficiency. In addition, investing in the plastic and mechanical components of injection pens is critical, as these are often the primary cause of supply shortages.

Over the next 3 to 5 years, the winners in the GLP-1 space will likely be those that can combine scientific innovation with operational excellence. Research and Development (R&D) capabilities will remain critical, particularly around next-generation molecules and delivery systems, but manufacturing reliability, regulatory credibility, and ecosystem integration will be equally important. Scale alone will not guarantee leadership.

The most successful organisations will be those that can integrate innovation, manufacturing, partnerships, technology, and market access into a cohesive global strategy. Ultimately, this market will reward companies that can deliver both innovation and execution at scale.