By Rishika Sadam
HYDERABAD, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has expanded its portfolio of generic versions of Ozempic with two new brands, according to product photographs and marketing materials reviewed by Reuters, after supply disruptions hit sales of its original Obeda injection in India’s fast-growing semaglutide market.
Obeda Pro and Obeda Plus are made by a different manufacturer than the original Obeda injectable, supplies of which were halted in July after Dr Reddy’s discovered an impurity in the active ingredient.
Dr Reddy’s is likely to discontinue supplies of Obeda and instead focus on Obeda Pro and Obeda Plus, several distributors told Reuters.
“The company said there were some technical issues with Obeda injectable, and they recalled stocks from us. They said they would instead supply Obeda Pro,” a drug distributor said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The development and launch planning for products such as Obeda Pro and Obeda Plus were under way well before the July supply disruption issues, Dr Reddy’s said in response to a Reuters request for comment.
“The presence of multiple semaglutide brands and manufacturing arrangements reflects the breadth of our portfolio strategy and should not be interpreted as evidence that one product was launched to replace another,” it said.
Shares of the company fell as much as 2% after the publication of the Reuters report before paring some losses to settle 1.4% lower on Friday.
Dr Reddy’s recalled Obeda injection in July “for technical evaluation,” according to a notice reviewed by Reuters. The company did not reply to a Reuters question on whether the recall was related to the impurity. An oral version of the drug was not recalled.
Dr Reddy’s launched Obeda — a generic version of Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug — in India in March after semaglutide lost patent protection in the country, setting off a race among domestic pharma companies to launch lower-cost versions of the drug.
Semaglutide, which suppresses appetite, is also the active ingredient in Novo’s blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy.
Obeda Plus and Obeda Pro are available in different dose strengths, just like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Research firm Pharmarack estimated in March that the domestic market for semaglutide drugs will grow to 80 billion rupees ($843.99 million) by 2030.
Dr Reddy’s said in July that supplies of Obeda injections would be unavailable until November. Analysts warned at the time that the company risked losing market share in India’s increasingly competitive semaglutide market if supplies were not restored quickly. Dr Reddy’s did not reply to a question on whether it had resolved the impurity issue.
Packaging materials reviewed by Reuters showed Obeda was manufactured by contract manufacturer OneSource Specialty Pharma. Obeda Pro and Obeda Plus, which began appearing in the market in late July according to supply invoices reviewed by Reuters, are manufactured by Hetero Labs.
Hetero Labs and OneSource Specialty Pharma did not respond to requests for comment.
Dr Reddy’s sold about 442,000 units of generic semaglutide through September in India, according to research firm Pharmarack. By comparison, India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharma sold 151,000 semaglutide units.
($1 = 94.7875 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam; Editing by Kevin Buckland)
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