HYDERABAD: Soon-to-be brides and grooms seeking shortcuts to shed pounds before the big day have become the latest consumer target for weight-loss drugs in India.<\/p>\n
New Delhi wellness clinic Klarity Skin Clinic touts a “Mounjaro \u200bbride” package, while other clinics have woven weight-loss injections into “pre-wedding” transformation packages typically focused on skin treatments and hairstyle makeovers.<\/p>\n
In a social media video, Klarity offers “guided nutrition, Mounjaro and \u200csmart workouts” to prepare brides to walk down the aisle. The clinic did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Eight doctors interviewed by Reuters said they have been fielding inquiries from brides, and some grooms, about taking weight-loss drugs before taking their vows. Many asked for Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, the first GLP-1 medication to enter India’s market for both diabetes and weight loss. It has become more sought after than Novo Nordisk’s rival Wegovy, the doctors said.<\/p>\n
“Over the last few months, over 20% of \u200bthe 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,” said Rajat Goel, a bariatric surgeon \u200bat Hindivine Healthcare in New Delhi.<\/p>\n
He said he prescribed the drugs only if patients were medically eligible, not for cosmetic use.<\/p>\n
TRADITION AND SOCIETAL PRESSURE<\/p>\n
Weddings in India \u2060are grand affairs for families that can afford them, with culture and tradition exerting a strong influence. Many marriages continue to be arranged by families, often bringing expectations around physical appearance and financial status.<\/p>\n
Aditi, a \u200b26-year-old finance worker from Mumbai, consulted a doctor in November for a weight-loss prescription after exercise and diet failed to get the desired results.<\/p>\n
“When I see the result, I feel happy,\u201d Aditi said about losing \u200b10 kilograms (22 pounds) on Mounjaro before her February wedding. “If I am not happy, I don’t feel confident. I did not want to feel that way at the time of the wedding.”<\/p>\n
She is one of the half a dozen brides, and one groom, who spoke to Reuters about pre-wedding use of weight-loss drugs, but asked not to use their family names due to social stigmas. They cited societal pressure to look a “certain way” at their wedding and most had discontinued the injections \u200bsoon after.<\/p>\n
Novo and Lilly launched their obesity drugs in India last year. The market is forecast to reach 80 billion rupees ($851.79 million) by 2030. Mounjaro sales doubled in the months after launch, making it the \u200bhighest-selling drug in the world’s most populous nation.<\/p>\n
Indian drugmakers began selling cheaper versions of Novo’s medicine last month after the patent on semaglutide, its active ingredient, expired, widening access.<\/p>\n
The drugs are intended for adults classified as obese, or for \u200cthose considered overweight \u2060with a weight-related medical condition such as diabetes, hypertension or sleep apnea.<\/p>\n
“Mounjaro has been approved by regulators for specific medical indications and is intended to be used only under the supervision of a qualified healthcare professional,” Lilly said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The lowest Mounjaro injection pen dose sells for 13,125 rupees ($139.50) per month in India, while the highest dose costs 25,781 rupees.<\/p>\n
Novo, which this week cut prices of Ozempic and Wegovy for the second time, is selling the lowest Wegovy dose for 5,660 rupees ($60.90) and the highest for 16,400 rupees a month.<\/p>\n
Novo said it discourages any form of self-medication of semaglutide or deviation from the indicated use on label.<\/p>\n
CHEAPER \u200bDRUGS, MISUSE CONCERNS<\/p>\n
India could have more than 440 million \u200boverweight or obese people by 2050, one \u2060of the world’s highest totals, according to The Lancet.<\/p>\n
Akshitha, who got married in Hyderabad last year, said the drugs helped her shed 15 kg (33 pounds), taking her weight to 76 kg before the wedding. A family doctor had suggested she try the injections when she worried about her weight, she said.<\/p>\n
“There’s so much \u200bchaos before the wedding, with all the planning and preparation. I knew I would not get time to go to the gym and be on \u200ba diet. That’s when these \u2060drugs looked like a better option,” she said, adding she might consider using them again after a future pregnancy.<\/p>\n
With local drugmakers flooding the market with cheaper weight-loss medicines, India’s drugs regulator has raised concerns about misuse and intensified scrutiny of unauthorized sales and promotion.<\/p>\n
“We understand the curiosity, but this cannot be a quick fix,” said Dr. Swati Pradhan, founder of obesity and metabolic wellness clinic Live Light.<\/p>\n
Pradhan said she prescribed the injections to only a few soon-to-be \u2060brides if they \u200bwere medically eligible and showed signs of other medical issues, while insisting on lifestyle changes for sustainable results.<\/p>\n
For 27-year-old Priya, a \u200btech worker from Bengaluru, weight-loss drugs became a way to counter body-shaming from prospective grooms’ families.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had men and their families reject my proposal because of my weight. I was told I was fat,” Priya told Reuters.<\/p>\n
She initially used Novo’s oral semaglutide, approved \u200bin India for diabetes, as an off-label treatment and lost more than 12 kg before switching to injectable Mounjaro.<\/p>\n
Her search for a groom continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HYDERABAD: Soon-to-be brides and grooms seeking shortcuts to shed pounds before the big day have become the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,84,223300,377,1779,5246,13665,13667],"class_list":{"0":"post-584018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-klarity-skin-clinic","12":"tag-medication","13":"tag-mounjaro","14":"tag-novo-nordisk","15":"tag-semaglutide","16":"tag-wegovy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}