Asia’s flood of cheap Ozempic generics opens gates to weight-loss abuse

As Asia grappled with the impact of the Iran war, a major pharmaceutical milestone quietly made the headlines. On March 20, the patent for semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy drugs, expired in several countries, crucially India and China – two countries renowned for their production of generic drugs, which are drugs with the same active ingredient as the branded original but typically sold at much lower prices.