India GLP-1s: Is cheap price enough? Winners need better molecules, delivery and indications beyond obesity!

Research evidence excerpt

India GLP-1s: Is cheap price enough? Winners need better molecules, delivery and indications beyond obesity!

28 July 2026

India Healthcare

India GLP-1s: Is cheap price enough? Winners need better

molecules, delivery and indications beyond obesity!

Is cheap price enough? Our read of Q1 FY27 on GLP-1 suggests not. Consensus sees an Nandan Kulkarni

+91 22 6842 1436 affordable generic semaglutide market; we see a far more complex obesity ecosystem.

nandan.kulkarni@bernsteinsg.com We believe India's GLP-1 market will be constrained by slower-than-expected adoption

while increasingly rewarding innovation in molecules, delivery technologies, and indications

Shirsh Sawarna beyond obesity.

+91 226 842 1492

shirsh.sawarna@bernsteinsg.com

First, we estimate adoption curve for GLP-1 therapies in India as fundamentally different

from that observed in the US or UK. Our internal survey suggests that sedentary lifestyles,

carbohydrate-heavy diets, and persistent social perceptions around body weight remain

meaningful barriers, particularly across Tier-2 markets and >40 age cohort—both critical

for widespread GLP-1 penetration. From a scientific perspective, we believe issues of

muscle mass loss could be more pronounced in India and therefore estimate adoption

will require greater spend and education on nutrition, protein supplementation, and

exercise than has been the case in developed markets. We also believe oral GLP-1s

could be preferred by in subset of patients for convenience, however, we do not believe

the shift to oral formulations automatically solves the adherence challenge. Medication

persistence in India remains below Western-market averages even across critical chronic

diseases, suggesting that long-term compliance may remain a key constraint irrespective of