India's GLP-1 frenzy sparks flood of misleading weight-loss products on e-commerce sites

INdia’s surging exact for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs has spawned a collimate commercial message category on e-commerce platforms such as virago and Flipkart — products marketed below the drug’s name that have nothing to do with it.On Amazon.in — one of India’s largest marketplaces — the pattern is documented enough to count. A search for “GLP-1” returns 250 results. On the first page alone — forty-eight listings — at least sixteen distinctly branded products carry the term in their title; these are, however, transdermal patches, capsules, powders, effervescent tablets, sold as weight-loss and blood-sugar aids, priced between ₹150 and ₹3,500. None contains semaglutide, liraglutide, or tirzepatide — the active ingredients behind Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro.The same search on Flipkart returned similar results.Semaglutide came off patent in India in March. Forty-plus generic manufacturers have since entered the market, and prices have collapsed from over ₹10,000 a month to under ₹500 a week in some formats — the fastest expansion of GLP-1 access India has seen.It is against that surge in demand that a parallel, unregulated category has grown around the drug’s name.Several of the products HT found on the e-commerce websites are not competing products so much as the same formulation appearing under different names. One transdermal patch — berberine and cinnamon extract marketed for appetite and craving control — recurs across several pages and several websites with cosmetically altered titles (”GLP-1 Support Patches,” “New GLP-1 Patches,” “GLP-1 Lifestyle Support Patches,” “GLP-1 Herbal Support Patch,” and others), at prices ranging from ₹149 to ₹669 for what appears to be an identical product in different quantities.Most, if not all, are based on ingredients with no connection to GLP-1 receptor biology. Several use berberine, an alkaloid with its own separate evidence base for blood sugar and lipid metabolism. One powder is built on a patented white mulberry leaf extract standardised to the compound 1-deoxynojirimycin, which inhibits gut enzymes that break down carbohydrates — a mechanism entirely different from GLP-1 receptor agonism. Others rely on prebiotic fibre blends or proprietary “metabolism booster” formulations without a clearly stated active compound.What are GLP-1 medicines?To understand why these are not GLP-1 requires some unpacking of what GLP-1 medicines are: they are pharmaceutical products, requiring specific licences to sell, and work by mimicking the body’s naturally occurring glucagon-like peptide-1 hormone.These drugs bind to GLP-1 receptors, stimulate insulin secretion, suppress glucagon production, slow gastric emptying and increase feelings of fullness. Because of their potent effects and potential side effects, they are approved for specific medical conditions and available only on prescription, under medical supervision.“The term GLP-1 has become a consumer buzzword. Many companies are using it to market products that are not actually GLP-1 therapies,” said Dr Monika Sharma, senior consultant, endocrinology, Aakash Healthcare.Also read: Fitness coach warns that GLP-1 weight loss drugs aren't for everyone, explains who they are really meant forA second expert said GLP-1 cannot be delivered as patches or drinks anyway, underscoring the deception of such marketing.“True GLP-1 drugs are peptide-based prescription injections that act on specific gut-brain receptors. A skin patch, drink, or powder cannot effectively deliver these molecules into the bloodstream because they are either broken down in the digestive tract or poorly absorbed through the skin. Many such products rely more on marketing than pharmacology. Despite the ‘GLP-1’ label, they generally do not produce clinically meaningful weight-loss effects,” she said.A third expert said most use compounds classified as nutraceuticals — products that are technically considered as dietary supplements that provide health benefits, but are not classified as drugs.“Most rely on ingredients such as green tea, cinnamon or berberine, which are claimed to stimulate the body’s own metabolic pathways,” said Dr Himika Chawla, senior consultant, endocrinology and diabetology at PSRI Hospital.A small number of products surfaced by the same search — protein powders positioned for muscle preservation during GLP-1 or GIP therapy — are a separate category, not counted among the sixteen. These support people who have already been prescribed a real GLP-1 drug rather than claiming to replace one.Dr Jasjeet Singh Wasir, director of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Medanta Gurugram, said: “ Consumers should carefully read product labels and understand that terms such as 'GLP-1 support', 'GLP-1 booster', or 'GLP-1 friendly' do not mean the product contains a GLP-1 medicine or provide the potent clinical benefits like GLP-1.”The issueThe issue here is not, then, that a law is being broken. It may be that no law now in force clearly covers what’s happening: a marketplace search for a drug in extraordinary public demand, returning a parallel commercial category built on its name.Representatives of Amazon and Flipkart declined requests to comment on such products being found on their websites.