Why GLP-1 drugs have a traction problem in India

This is a post I’ve been intending to write for a very long time now, but been putting off for one reason or the other. Finally, I saw this tweet by Nithin Kamath of Zerodha, on how GLP-1 drugs aren’t selling as planned, and I figured this is a good time to finally write this post:

Nithin Kamath@Nithin0dha

India is a weird market. With obesity rates shooting up, I'd have bet on the sales of generic GLP-1s exploding once their patents expired. They now cost about Rs 1,000–2,500 a month, and there's growing evidence pointing to benefits well beyond weight loss, including

7:24 AM · Jun 26, 2026 · 152K Views

130 Replies · 50 Reposts · 912 Likes

A few months ago, at a party, one of the guests looked unusually thin (and not in a good way - slightly “sickly thin”). My first guess was that he was on GLP-1, but I chose discretion over confirmation. Soon someone commented that he had lost weight and he quickly said “I’ve been playing badminton”. But his body surely didn’t look like that of someone who played badminton. I still stand by my hypothesis.

Basically, in India, “taking the easy way out” is much frowned upon. I know this from my own personal experience from conversations where I’ve told people that I’ve taken antidepressants or stimulants - a lot of them have commented that I’ve been “taking the easy way out” by “resorting to drugs” and not using my willpower enough.

Actually if you talk to any older relatives, you will know how much people value this show of effort. For example:
”I really really wanted to make the trek to Kedarnath, but my daughter-in-law insisted that I take the helicopter instead, so I took that”.
or
”I really wanted to hand grind the dosa batter, but I ended up falling ill, and so used the wet grinder instead”

And so on and so forth - once you develop an ear for spotting shows of effort, you can never unsee it. Whenever you take the seemingly easy way out, it needs to come with lots of massive justifications. It is seen as being somehow morally wrong and inappropriate and maybe even insulting to others if you are seen as taking the easy way out.

Now enters GLP-1.

Fitness is again something that a lot of people (including Indians - nothing special there) make a big deal of. Again, when someone loses weight or becomes fitter, the compliments inevitably allude to the effort that led them there - of all the sweets and drinks that they consciously avoided, the hours spent exercising when they could have slept more instead, the amazing willpower they have displayed to stay disciplined (willpower and disciplines are again insane positives, and something worth absolutely showing off!), etc.

GLP-1 drugs completely undo all of this. Suddenly you have a drug (one of those things you resort to for “nonstandard stuff” only if you have run out of willpower) that if taken regularly does the job of suppressing your appetite and helping you lose weight (And remember GLP-1s were originally developed as drugs for diabetes, and diabetes remains a massive problem in India, and so if that is solved along the way it is a huge bonus).

While it will make you fitter (and achieve your objective) the “willpower story” is suddenly lost, and the milieu here makes you feel less good about losing weight than if you did by “traditional” methods such as diet or exercise.

And so you put off going on GLP-1s. “Maybe this one time I can try with a diet, and then see in three months” or “I’ll set up a home gym and use it regularly rather than such artificial methods”.

India also glorifies organic, herbal and traditional products and methods, and frowns upon innovations. Fine, Indians love innovations as long as they help in cutting corners or growing the GDP, but their love for innovations stops there. Some parties equate national glory to going back to an “ancient mythological kingdom” (heck, not just some parties - Gandhiji also glorified this) .

And speaking of Gandhiji, he promoted Indian products and methods and “swadeshi” which meant that post independence, anything that resembled aping the west was looked down upon. Again it helped that Indians valued effort (or a show of effort), which made it easy for us to put up with more inefficient but traditional practices.

Vicks became big in India after it claimed to be “ayurvedic”. Homeopathy is acceptable here because it has an Indian sounding name that suggests it is “traditional”. Organic products of all kinds find takers easily here, even if they are more expensive.

Now, with this backdrop, consider an unabashaedly “allopathic” (allopathy is again a term that is mostly used in India) medicine like GLP-1s. Again, allopathy medicines are things a lot of Indians admit to using only as a last resort.

Not only are GLP-1s “an easy way out” but they are also “western innovations”. The branding, irrespective of health benefits, is way off for Indians to consume en masse.

So I’m not surprised at all that pharma companies are cutting their sales targets.

I think what we need are a few mascots. We need high-profile “respectable” people who go public about their weight loss thanks to GLP-1s. And then the dams might begin to break.

I’m pretty sure the pharma companies are working on this - there are already likely to be a bunch of celebrities who are on various GLP-1 formulations, and it’s only a matter of time they come to endorse the drugs they have used. Until then, only really motivated (no pun intended there!) will take them.