28% of medicines in India are fake. GLP-1 drugs just entered that market.
An ASPA-CRISIL survey released in March 2026 put a number on something most people already suspected: roughly 28% of medicines sold in India are counterfeit. Among 1,639 consumers surveyed across nine cities, 89% said they'd purchased a fake product at least once.
GLP-1 medications are now part of that market. When Novo Nordisk's semaglutide patent expired on March 20, 2026, over 40 Indian manufacturers launched 50-plus generic versions within days. Prices dropped from Rs 8,800-16,400 per month to as low as Rs 1,290. That price crash was good news for patients. It was also good news for counterfeiters.
A global problem, not just an Indian one
The WHO has detected falsified GLP-1 products in nearly 60 countries since 2022. The US FDA has seized counterfeit Ozempic from legitimate supply chains three separate times: December 2023, April 2025, and December 2025. In some of those cases, the fake pens contained relabeled insulin instead of semaglutide. Patients expecting an appetite suppressant were injected with a blood sugar-lowering drug instead, causing hypoglycemia, seizures, and in some cases, coma.
Why India is especially vulnerable
Injectable GLP-1 drugs require cold-chain storage, and 63% of medicines in India move through local retail outlets with limited cold storage. Add high demand, dozens of unfamiliar new brands hitting shelves overnight, and a fragmented distribution network, and the conditions for fakes to slip through are hard to ignore.
Testing infrastructure is another weak spot. India doesn't have widely enforced, validated methods for testing GLP-1 peptide compounds across its labs. Results vary between facilities, making quality checks unreliable.
The legitimate GLP-1 market in India is growing fast. Injectable GLP-1 agonist sales hit Rs 1,736 crore in April 2026, up 218% year-on-year. Where there's money, there are fakes. For patients buying these drugs, the question isn't whether counterfeits exist in the supply chain. It's whether the specific pen in your hand is one of them.
Sources: WHO · FDA · ForgeStop · The Lancet