Sun Pharma gets approval to sell a copy of Ozempic, making diabetes treatment more available.
By Mahnoor | 16-07-2026
JOHANNESBURG, July 15: India’s Sun Pharmaceutical Industries got permission from South Africa’s health regulator to make and sell a cheaper copy of semaglutide. This is the main ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s best-selling diabetes and weight-loss drugs.
Novo’s patent on semaglutide – used in diabetes medicine Ozempic and weight-loss treatment Wegovy – ended in March. This made people think many cheaper copy drugs would come from local and international medicine makers.
The introduction of cheaper copycat drugs also creates a problem for U.S. company Eli Lilly, which has started selling very successful diabetes and weight loss medicines in South Africa.
Sun Pharma said in a statement that the approval from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority makes South Africa the second country, after India, where it has gotten permission to sell a copycat version of semaglutide as an injection.
The approval is for adults with type 2 diabetes that is not well controlled.
Sun Pharma said it plans to start selling the product in South Africa soon. The drug will be in a pre-filled pen that can be used many times, available in two strengths: 2 mg and 4 mg. It is taken once a week.
“We are still focused on making generic medicines easier to get and giving patients and doctors treatments that are proven to work,” said Sun Pharma’s Chief Operating Officer Aalok Shanghvi.
South Africa’s weight-loss drug market is mostly controlled by Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Novo’s Ozempic and Wegovy, but these products face more competition from mixed versions of the drugs.
Regulators have been working more to watch and control the mixed-drug market because people really want cheap treatments.
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