Mumbai, India
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On any given morning in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, power-walkers circle the running track, fitness watches buzzing with every step. Minutes later, some drift toward nearby food stalls, where oil sizzles and hot samosas and syrupy jalebis land on paper plates. It’s a snapshot of India’s uneasy relationship with health and indulgence – and the backdrop to a fast-growing medical and commercial frenzy.
That frenzy is over the imminent expiry of a patent protecting semaglutide, a protein that mimics a hormone telling your brain that you’re not hungry. It’s a key ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s wildly popular injectable weight-loss drug Ozempic.
Novo…