Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro: Affluent Indians use Western drugs to lose weight gained from Western habits

Middle-class Indians trying to lose weight are embracing drugs such as Mounjaro in a country that has been called the world’s diabetes capital.

NEW DELHI — When the weight loss drug Mounjaro came on the market in India earlier this year, Shyamanthak Kiran was one of the first patients to try it.

Kiran, a 27-year-old financial trader who has struggled with hypothyroidism, said he “did not have a lot of expectations” when it came to losing weight. But “luck turned out in my favor,” he said, and in six months he lost all of the 60-plus pounds he had gained a few years earlier.

“It was a two-year struggle that came to an end, and I couldn’t be happier,” he told NBC News.

Indians trying to lose weight are embracing drugs such as Mounjaro, which is also used to treat diabetes in a country that has been called the world’s diabetes capital.

The injectable medication from American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has become India’s most popular drug by value since being approved in March, with over $11 million in sales in October, pharmaceutical market research firm Pharmarack said Friday.