Ozempic has become a buzzword these days. But if Vikrant Shrotriya, managing director, Novo Nordisk India Pvt Ltd, had his way, obesity would get all the attention, medical or otherwise. In an engaging conversation with THE WEEK’s Chief Associate Editor and Director Riyad Mathew, Shrotriya talks about the need to tackle obesity and how GLP-1 drugs can be a game-changer. Excerpts:
Riyad Mathew/ What are the main issues facing India today? I want to first hear the challenges and then the solutions.
Vikrant Shrotriya/ The challenge is economic prosperity. And along with that, you have a directly proportional channel, which comes up to obesity, diabetes and associated mental disorders. I always say that everything is a metabolic disorder.
We are sitting here for the last one hour, and it is said that it is almost equivalent to smoking. We have calorie surplus, and we have less and less physical activity. I do not know the Indian data, but a normal American eats 3,500 calories. I am very sure that in India, too, most of us end up taking [too many] calories.
[The data is] disturbing, at least for an emerging economy like India—100 million diabetics, 250 million obese, 350 [million] overweight.... I can tell you we are blessed with quite a lot of mind [intellect], but when it comes to our body, at least we call it thin fat Indian. If you put a 67kg person next to me, you will find that I will have more fat, specifically abdominal fat. That's the mother of all diseases. We just discussed the interplay of many of the diseases, but I would say that [most] problems have [something] to do [with obesity], whether it is depression, anxiety, respiratory disorder, heart. It is a big problem.
Mathew/ You said obesity is a big problem. When I was studying in the United States, it was a very obese nation. But I read a recent report that obesity in the United States is on the decline. So what is your solution for a country like India?
Shrotriya/ I would say that everybody tried to bend the curve of obesity. It was so simple. A lot of doctors understand the benefit of being physically fit, eating right. But if it was so simple, we would not have obesity to the tune of 40 per cent. It is the most difficult thing to exercise every day, to have the discipline of exercising and eating right.
But in the US, where obesity was increasing at an alarming pace... it has reduced from 40 per cent to 37 per cent. And the only thing that has helped is GLP-1.... When you get diet and exercise, and along with that when you get medication, then you find the synergy of reducing [obesity].
Mathew/ What would be your advice to government officials here?
Shrotriya/ I missed the morning session on affordability, accessibility and quality health care. But if I have to look at the future, I would like to see, first, if obesity can be prevented. If it cannot be prevented, at least one has to treat it. Whether it is a disorder or a condition or a disease, I think we need to tackle this problem. And for that, I can only see that, at least currently, we have tools—GLP-1 [drugs]—which has been announced. So at least from the corporate side, we have taken a step. And it looks like a little bit of a commercial, but it is not. I am really passionate about obesity—to bend the curve, at least in India, in my lifetime. We have reduced the price [of Wegovy] by 37 per cent, just to make it accessible to more people. And we have seen that the acceptability is actually increasing. Second, I have never seen, at least in the NCDs space, a medicine like GLP-1 coming so fast under the essential drug list. So I have a request that if more and more obesity treatment units or metabolic disorder units can be opened up. I think that probably can help in terms of bending the curve like the way it has happened in the US.
Mathew/ Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals & Fertilisers Anupriya Patel and Member of Parliament Bansuri Swaraj talked about the government’s achievements in taking health care to rural areas. As a company, how would you address the issue of obesity?
Shrotriya/ I can only say that alone we can never do it. We are a company with an innovation of 100 years. We got insulin. And then during the journey of insulin, we got this GLP-1 for obesity treatment and also for diabetes. I would repeat what the minister said. We need a Jan Andolan (people’s movement)—sabka saath (everyone’s support). We need to have a community. We need to have the government, policy makers and hospitals to see obesity as a disorder. We would like obesity to be seen as a condition to be tackled. And you will see the magic. You will find that metabolic disorders will actually come down. We know that with 5 per cent weight reduction, blood sugar comes down, hypertension comes down. Weight reduction should be a part and parcel of [treatment].
Mathew/ Everyone is talking about Ozempic. Can you explain to the audience about Ozempic and what is going to happen?
Shrotriya/ Ozempic has become a consumer word. But it is a medicine, and it should be prescribed only by doctors. It so happened that... it became the most searched Google word. We could never ever imagine it. And because of that, the demand for Ozempic became very, very high. But I am very happy that it has got a revolutionary approval in India, and it should soon be available [here].