In four or so years, everything will change for Australians on Ozempic. The weight loss wonder drug will go from costing about $300 a month for private patients, depending on the dosage, to a small fraction of that.
In late 2029, and then again in 2031, two patents for Ozempic expire in Australia, opening the way for cheap generics to flood the market.
Indian patients already know this life. Canadians will soon, too. Overweight Chinese, Turkish and South African people are all on track for cheap weight loss drugs within months as patents in those countries expire. There, the estimated half million Australians taking weight loss drugs – and many more who would like to but cannot afford it – can see a glimpse of their future.
In India, local drugmaker Natco Pharma is offering a generic version of Ozempic for 1290 rupees a month, or about $20, though that will require users to inject themselves with a syringe from a vial. Jabs via a pen-style device will cost about 4500 rupees a month.
Either way, it’s a fraction of the $299 that many Australian telehealth outfits charge each month for Ozempic, its weight loss brand name Wegovy, or pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s rival medication Mounjaro.
It’s likely to have extraordinary consequences. There have long been reports of “Ozempic pregnancies”, caused by weight loss improving fertility and (potentially) the drugs interfering with contraceptives, but in India, upmarket beauty parlours are now offering “Mounjaro bride” packages that come with weight loss drugs.
“Over the last few months, over 20 per cent of the queries we’ve received for obesity injections are from to-be brides, who also openly give us a timeline on how soon they are getting married,” Rajat Goel, a bariatric surgeon in New Delhi told Reuters.
Goel said he granted prescriptions only to people who required it for their health rather than beauty. Often, the two go hand in hand and, as this masthead has previously reported, many clinics are not so scrupulous.
So far, Indian clinics are mostly catering to the rich. But as the generic alternatives start coming on to the market in serious numbers, the number of middle and lower-class people across the world taking up the wedding packages is sure to surge.
Should those patients be starting the medication later in life, they might encounter another phenomenon: the Ozempic divorce.
People who undergo rapid weight loss are about twice as likely as the general population to get a divorce, according to a 2018 Swedish paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association – Surgery.
That study, of people who had gastric band surgery rather than using medication, found that those who had lost a large amount of weight had a divorce rate of 14.4 per cent within six years of treatment, compared to 8.2 per cent among the wider population.
David Sarwer, director of the Centre for Obesity Research in Philadelphia, said in the British Telegraph that the weight loss was not ending good marriages. “It’s probably more that for the person losing weight and feeling better about themselves – it may be empowering them to leave an unhealthy relationship.”
For people escaping miserable marriages, or those in serious medical need, cheap Ozempic is worth celebrating. But for others, the widespread availability of the medication at prices that will allow people to stay on it permanently is a harbinger of a troubling world.
US writer Derek Thompson predicted in late 2025 that 2026 would witness the beginning of an increasingly “hot, high and lonely” world as weight loss drugs and cosmetic surgery improved, marijuana use kept surging and fewer people drank with friends. He is looking prescient.
That decidedly mixed picture for humanity is, oddly, not necessarily better for the big weight loss companies, and it may even be worse.
The telehealth drug companies beholden to the drugmakers will be thrilled to have more options. On the other hand, shares in Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic, are down about 45 per cent over the past 12 months to about 240 Danish Kroner ($54) as it slashes prices in markets such as India to compete with generics and its next-generation drugs fail to keep up with rivals’ products in clinical tests.
Other manufacturers, such as Eli Lilly, may fare better, but they will have to contend with a drug that has huge name recognition available at very low prices. A Novo Nordisk spokeswoman said losing exclusivity over a drug was a normal thing for a company to manage.
“We are committed to serving patients around the world by not only meeting the demand for our existing treatments, but also by pioneering new innovations that enhance patient care,” she said.
“Our substantial investment in scaling up manufacturing capacity is a testament to our dedication to ensuring a steady supply of Ozempic in the coming years.”
Novo Nordisk has tricks up its sleeve. The company is working on getting Australian approval for a pill version of Wegovy. It will be a long time before that goes generic.
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Nick Bonyhady is the business editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former deputy federal editor, technology editor and industrial relations reporter.Connect via X or email.