India’s Healthify eyes more weight-loss drugmaker tie-ups after Novo Nordisk pact

By Rishika Sadam and Abhirami G

BENGALURU, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Indian health-tech startup Healthify is in talks to partner with more weight-loss drugmakers to offer health, nutrition and lifestyle coaching, after signing a deal with Novo Nordisk’s India unit, its chief executive said.

The deal marks Healthify’s first such partnership with a drugmaker, and it hopes similar agreements will boost its paid subscriber base.

Healthify, which provides health metric tracking along with nutrition and fitness advice, launched a patient-support programme this week through which it offers coaching services to users prescribed Novo’s weight-loss therapies. 

“Our vision is to be the world’s biggest patient support provider for all GLP (GLP-1 receptor agonists are a class of weight-loss drugs) companies in every market,” CEO Tushar Vashisht told Reuters.

The patient-support programme is part of Healthify’s broader weight-loss initiative, which already accounts for a double-digit share of its revenue, Vashisht said.

Healthify has about 45 million users globally, he added, while its paid subscriber base is in the six-digit figures. The company declined to provide a precise number.

India has emerged as a key battleground for obesity treatments, with Novo and U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly competing for a slice of a global market expected to reach $150 million annually by the end of the decade.

Local generic drugmakers are also expected to enter the segment after the patent for semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo’s obesity drug Wegovy, expires in 2026.

Healthify, which has so far raised $122 million, said its GLP-1 weight-loss programme is its fastest-growing offering. It expects more than a third of its paid subscriptions to come from the programme over the next year, with about half of that growth from new users and 15% from existing subscribers.

The company also plans to roll out its Novo-linked support programme in other geographies, Vashisht said, but declined to elaborate.

(Reporting by Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad and Abhirami G from Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Sonia Cheema)

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