(Corrects paragraph 1 to say more than 260 suspected counterfeit pens seized, not more than 500, after drug control officer revises number)
By Rishika Sadam
April 20 (Reuters) – Indian drug regulators seized more than 260 suspected counterfeit pens of Eli Lilly’s obesity and diabetes drug Mounjaro and said the main accused had ordered raw materials from vendors on Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba.
Officials from the northern state of Haryana on Saturday recovered the suspected fake pens from a vehicle on the outskirts of New Delhi and arrested two people accused of making and selling the drugs, the Haryana Food and Drug Control Administration said in a statement.
India’s booming obesity market, flush with branded products such as Mounjaro and Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drugs, as well as several cheaper generic alternatives, is expected to be valued at 80 billion rupees ($859.38 million) by 2030.
Mounjaro—approved for diabetes and weight loss in India—was launched in 2025 and has become the country’s top-selling drug by value.
The primary accused did not have a pharmaceutical licence and made the products at a private property, Drug Control Officer Amandeep Chauhan told Reuters. The two arrested individuals sold the pens on online marketplace IndiaMART at a 27% discount to the genuine drug’s price, he said.
The peptides used in the drugs were sourced from vendors on Alibaba, Chauhan said, adding that officials had recovered large quantities of raw materials, including locally made Mounjaro packaging labels, from the property on Monday.
The recovered materials were valued at around 7 million rupees, he said.
Alibaba and IndiaMART did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
The pens were not stored under proper temperature conditions and showed differences in font sizes and other label details compared with the original product, which Chauhan said raised suspicion that they were counterfeit.
Samples have been sent to government-run laboratories for confirmation, he added, saying the accused were in judicial remand for further investigation.
“Lilly takes patient safety extremely seriously and welcomes regulatory authority’s action against illicit medicines,” the firm told Reuters in a statement on Monday, adding that it is supporting the investigation.
($1 = 93.0900 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad and Saurabh Sharma in New Delhi; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
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