Ramesh Swaminathan, Executive Director and CFO of Lupin, says India’s weight-loss drug market could reach $1 billion, and expects Lupin to secure a strong share once semaglutide’s patent expires in March 2026. He also believes that the U.S. won't come out with tariffs on generic medicines and remains bullish on the company's prospects in the country.

New Delhi

Lupin Pharmaceuticals has identified a significant market opportunity for semaglutide, a drug used for both diabetes and weight loss, in India, estimating the potential value at nearly $1 billion. The company, already a leading player in the diabetes and cardiovascular sectors, expects to capture a substantial share of this market.

Lupin is also expanding its presence in other countries, including South Africa, Canada, Brazil, and China, while maintaining a strong focus on the U.S. market. The company addressed concerns about possible U.S. tariffs and regulatory changes, stating that such measures could increase costs for the public, but remains optimistic due to its manufacturing and R&D investments in both India and the United States.

'Billion dollar' weight-loss drug opportunity in India

that weight loss boom that we're seeing really across the world. Your own semaglutide plans for India and South Africa. We understand that you have Canada Brazil and China on the horizon too. But relative to the rest of the world where does India stand and how big in numbers is the opportunity according to you when it comes to semaglutide. From my perspective semaglutide is indeed a very big opportunity. India is generally regarded as in fact the diabetes capital of the world. And there are a number of people who would you know of course consume this for diabetes and also for weight loss. We believe that the opportunity to be close to a billion dollars across India. And given the fact that we are actually amongst the top players in the diabetes space the cardiovascular space people do we will get a fair share of the entire market so to speak. And that would obviously mean good volumes and profits for us. So we're pretty bullish about our prospects for semaglutide in a general sense. There is pressure from the likes of the White House. Mr. Donald Trump indicating several different things when it comes to pharma. He is wanting everyone to localize in the U.S. What would it mean for you. Lupin and its cost structure and margin profile especially considering the U.S. has stricter FDA regulations versus India and requires more R&D that we were talking about earlier. So you know this clearly has been talked about for quite some time now. But we do believe that when it comes to genetic medicine it is actually a question of effort of access to medicines by the general medical population. So I given the fact that in the event that there is tariffs and the like there is going to be an increase in overall cost to the public. I'm not sure that he would ever come out with tariffs for for this sector. So clearly that's the way it is at this stage. But it's again early days. It's you know we need to see look at a wait and watch policies to be adopted in this case. But we are pretty bullish about our overall prospects in America because we also have in fact a couple of manufacturing plants out there. One at Somerset and we are expanding our facility at Florida spending a lot more on R&D and of course the manufacturing facility itself. So clearly whilst you know we have this basic paradigm of manufacturing and doing R&D in India is of course supplemented by large efforts in America as well.

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Breakdown