Novo Nordisk is betting that its newly launched once-weekly insulin can help overcome one of the biggest barriers to insulin adoption in India: the burden and fear of daily injections. The Danish drugmaker has launched Awiqli, or insulin icodec, in India, making the country the sixth market globally to introduce what the company describes as the world's first once-weekly basal insulin.
The treatment cuts the number of injections from 365 a year to 52 and has been approved for adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. “When we are launching this Awiqli, you called it a disruption. I call it a solution for Type 2 diabetes,” Vikrant Shrotriya, Managing Director of Novo Nordisk India, told NDTV Profit.
India has more than 101 million people living with diabetes, but insulin adoption remains limited. Shrotriya said only about six to seven million people currently take insulin, even though roughly 25–30% of patients may need insulin initiation.
“One of the issues by which the majority of patients actually don't take insulin is because of the fear of multiple injections, daily injections,” he said. “Once a week, a patient can be initiated with a basal insulin.”
Novo Nordisk Promises Competitive India Pricing
Affordability will be central to Novo Nordisk's strategy. Shrotriya said the company has drawn lessons from its experience with semaglutide and intends to price Awiqli competitively.
The 1 ml Awiqli pen, containing 700 insulin units, has been priced at Rs 2,611. The larger 3 ml pen, containing 2,100 units, will cost Rs 7,883. At an indicative dose of 70 units a week, the treatment would cost about Rs 261–263 per week.
“We have been able to get the pricing for the launch in India much more affordable than even the current analogs,” he said. Novo Nordisk is hoping the combination of fewer injections, competitive pricing and its distribution network can turn Awiqli into a volume play.
“I really wish and hope for a volume play,” Shrotriya said. “With this kind of pricing, with the kind of distribution network which we have got, the volume play comes into the picture.”
Asked whether aggressive pricing could pressure margins initially, Shrotriya said the company's immediate priority was access. “This is the time where we would like to invest in science and education, leave the margin on the left side and see that the launch of this molecule, the access of this molecule, becomes much stronger.”
‘Just The Start' For GLP-1 Drugs In India
Novo Nordisk is also looking beyond the recent surge in competition in the GLP-1 market. Shrotriya described the current attention around the category as “mass hysteria” but said India remained at the beginning of a much longer growth cycle.
“This is just the start of the journey,” he said, pointing out that less than 0.5% of India's obese population currently uses these medicines, compared with roughly 15–20% in the US.
Despite the end of semaglutide exclusivity, Shrotriya said “quality, trust and reliability continues” and highlighted Novo Nordisk's pipeline, including the Wegovy pill, CagriSema, zenagamtide and a once-weekly growth hormone.
“Innovation is not going to stop,” he said. “This journey of science and innovation continues in Novo Nordisk.”
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