By Rishika Sadam
March 11 (Reuters) – India’s drug regulator has warned pharmaceutical companies against direct or indirect advertising of weight-loss medicines, including obesity awareness campaigns that could act as surrogate promotions, as global and domestic drugmakers seek a share of the country’s fast-growing obesity drug market.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, in an advisory dated Tuesday, said any advertisement that exaggerates therapeutic efficacy, guaranteeing weight-loss outcomes, downplaying lifestyle changes or inducing demand for drug therapy, could amount to misleading promotion, and merit regulatory action.
The advisory reaffirmed India’s existing drug rules that prohibit advertising of prescription-only medicines to the public.
Promotional activities, including what it described as “so-called (obesity) awareness campaigns” that function as surrogate advertisements for prescription drugs, could be treated as misleading marketing practices, according to the advisory, which was uploaded to the regulator’s website on March 11 and reviewed by Reuters.
The move comes as global drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which launched their obesity drugs in India last year, are scrambling to cement their lead in the domestic market.
Both companies have increased outreach to doctors and run aggressive campaigns highlighting obesity as a disease in public spaces including airports, and on several digital platforms including entertainment channels and social media as well as through newspaper ads, according to doctors, analysts, medical representatives, patients and distributors who previously spoke to Reuters.
Lilly has also collaborated with Bollywood actors in a social media campaign focused on obesity awareness.
The advisory said promotional activity under the pretext of disease awareness, influencer engagement or corporate branding that creates brand recall or visibility for a prescription product would be treated as a violation.
India is projected to have the world’s second-largest overweight or obese population by 2050 in absolute terms, according to global health estimates.
Domestic drugmakers are also preparing to launch cheaper versions of Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug once the patent on its active ingredient, semaglutide, expires in India later in March.
“Obesity is a chronic metabolic condition requiring comprehensive management, including lifestyle interventions,” the advisory, signed by Drug Controller General Rajeev Raghuvanshi, said.
Promotions of pharmaceutical therapy must not undermine public health initiatives for preventive healthcare measures, it said.
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
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