By Rishika Sadam
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s Fortis Healthcare plans to open more dedicated obesity clinics across its hospitals to meet surging demand for weight-loss drugs and therapies in the world’s most populous nation, its CEO told Reuters.
The India launch of popular weight-loss drugs such as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy this year has heightened patient awareness in the nation projected to have the world’s second-largest population of obese people by 2050.
Mounjaro and Wegvoy’s sales doubled in months after launch, earlier this year.
“We are witnessing a sharp rise in patient interest and demand for structured guidance on weight management and newer obesity-related therapies,” Fortis Managing Director and Chief Executive, Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, said in an interview earlier this month.
Fortis, partly owned by Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare, operates 28 hospitals and manages Gleneagles facilities in India.
It has already commissioned five obesity clinics in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bengaluru and plans to set up 13 more clinics across the Fortis network in the states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Haryana, within a year.
The company, which administers weight-loss drugs at its hospitals, said its obesity clinics will feature endocrinologists, weight-loss surgeons, nutritionists, dieticians, and psychologists to tailor programs based on patients’ requirements.
The Indian obesity drug market has grown fivefold since 2021 to 6.28 billion rupees ($71.16 million), driven by competitive pricing and patients’ willingness to try new drugs, according to research firm Pharmarack.
The market is expected to grow further when generic drugmakers launch cheaper versions of Novo’s drug next year.
Fortis plans to invest 7 billion rupees in expansion of its hospitals over the next four years, scaling up capacity in Bengaluru, Mumbai, the National Capital Region and Punjab, and aims for high-teens percentage revenue growth eventually, Raghuvanshi said.
($1 = 88.2560 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Eileen Soreng)
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