Ozempic play: Mankind Pharma in the fray for weight-loss drugs

The pharma major is the latest among the country’s top generics drugmakers, including Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Natco Pharma, to explore a potential launch of the drug, and is banking on partnerships and its strong market presence to gain an edge, a senior executive told Mint in an interview. 

“Obesity is the market everybody wants to look at, it’s a very, very big market opening up…we are no exception to that,” Atish Majumdar, senior president at Mankind Pharma, told Mint. “We are also keenly looking at it,” Majumdar, who leads the company’s specialty division out of Mumbai, said. 

The company is considering a foray in GLP-1 drugs, a class of medicines used to treat type 2 diabetes, which includes Semaglutide. 

This comes as Mankind has been driving up chronic portfolio and specialty divisions – a strategic shift that is in line with how disease trends have been shaping up, Majumdar said. 

The anti-obesity and weight loss drug market has exploded with demand outpacing supply. Semaglutide, and other GLP-1 drugs have been hailed as miracle drugs for their weight loss treatment. 

According to estimates by JM Financial Institutional Securities, the exact market for Semaglutide is likely to be larger than $28-29 billion globally, given the unmet demand. Per estimates by Goldman Sachs, the market for GLP-1 drugs is expected to reach $100 billion by 2030. 

Semaglutide, which is sold under patent by innovator Novo Nordisk, is going off patent in India in January 2026, and Indian companies like Natco Pharma, Dr Reddy’s, Sun Pharma and others are already gearing up for launches. Natco secured the first-to-file exclusivity under Paragraph IV for all strengths of Wegovy and key strengths of Ozempic, and would get a 180 exclusivity on launch if it clears all legal and regulatory hurdles. 

At the same time, Novo Nordisk has expressed plans to launch the drug in India, although the Danish company has not clarified a timeline. Innovator Eli Lilly, whose weight loss drug Tirzepatide is sold under brand name Mounjaro, is also planning an India launch this year. 

Mankind sharpens focus

Mankind is exploring several avenues to enter the segment. “There are multiple routes to achieve this; we are evaluating all routes and seeing that we can be there on time,” Majumdar said.

The most likely strategies would be partnering with a company that has a GLP-1 drug or co-developing it with someone. “It would be very challenging to do it alone at this point of time,” Majumdar added. 

Companies looking to make generic versions of GLP-1 drugs are most likely to rely on third party players to enter the market, and then leverage their marketing presence, said Vishal Manchanda, senior vice president, institutional research, Systematix. Mankind has inlicensed Glargine insulin from Biocon, and they could leverage that sales force to market GLP-1s.

“From a competition perspective, there are many players trying to get into the same space…the ones who are better poised would be those who have significant sales coming from diabetes,” Manchanda said. Companies like Sun Pharma, Lupin and Biocon are large players in the segment. 

“Mankind may use this opportunity to build a presence,” he added. 

The focus on anti-obesity is in line with the company’s strategy to ramp up its chronic and specialty segment, through partnerships and acquisitions. 

The company has been focusing on increasing its share of chronic therapies, and set up a separate specialty division to focus on therapies like cardiology, oncology, gastro, urology, etc. It has improved its share of chronic therapies in its overall prescription business from 20.4% in FY15 to 35.5% in FY24. “We are tying up with different companies to see that we bring the best products into India, bring real innovation into India,” Majumdar said. 

Last year, the company acquired a 100% stake in Bharat Serums and Vaccines for ₹13,768 crore, and is in the process of integrating the company’s high entry barrier, specialty portfolio as well as its R&D expertise.

It also signed a pact with Chinese biotech firm Innovent late last year, to bring its immunotherapy drug – the biosimilar Sintilimab, to India under a licence. The phase 3 trials are expected to be conducted this year, and the drug is likely to be launched in the next two to three years.  

This is a progression and shift from its previously strong focus on acute therapies. 

The company’s focus now is to grow in tier-1 and urban markets, increase its scope of chronic therapies, and increase its presence in specialty, complex drugs.

“The acute segment has started to plateau now…if you want to build growth ahead of the Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM), you need to get into areas which are [outpacing] the IPM,” Manchanda said. “Entry into super-specialties like GLP-1 would help you grow faster than the market,” he added.

“Contrary to common wisdom, Mankind has followed a disruptive strategy to establish its domestic formulations business by approaching customers and influencers in tier II and below cities, becoming the industry leader in terms of the number of prescriptions,” Motilal Oswal analysts noted in a research note in June 2024.

“Mankind is working on multiple levers to boost growth over the next three to five years: increasing the scope of business in chronic therapies (36% of DF sales in FY24) by expanding niche products in portfolio, enhancing its presence in metro/Tier-I cities (53% of DF sales in FY24), and investing aggressively in brand building,” the analysts noted. 

“These are the fast-growing areas. And this is where the best innovative medicines are coming in. so you are parked there simply because the incidence is also high,” Majumdar said. The focus on specialty segments also helps the company expand its presence in tier-1 and metros. 

Also read: What body positivity means in the age of Ozempic

Heating competition

Mankind’s chronic revenue share is much lower than its India-focused peers at 36%, compared to Torrent Pharmaceuticals (75%) and JB Chemicals (54-55%), according to an analyst note by BNP Paribas.

“A large field force, wide doctor coverage and affordable pricing have helped Mankind create large brands and grow faster than the IPM, and we expect Mankind’s domestic business (ex-BSV) to post a revenue CAGR of 12.3% over FY24-27. However, scaling up its contribution from the chronic segments is likely to be an uphill task, in our view,” the research note said. 

Majumdar said that the drugmaker is banking on its reputation as a brand, as well as its robust portfolio, to give it an edge. “For the last 16 years, we have been India’s number one company by prescriptions…that is the kind of trust doctors have on the Mankind brand,” he said. 

“We have built up a very robust portfolio, which gives us an edge because it’s very incisive,” he added.