Health and wellness startups like The Good Bug, Wellbeing Nutrition and Veera Health are rolling out weight loss products that target appetite regulation, gut health and metabolic disorders. These are marketed as cheaper, easily accessible alternatives to weight loss injections.
With the conversation around weight loss shifting from wellness-led to clinic-led, experts believe that the weight loss industry built on lifestyle coaching and supplements, must reinvent itself or risk being obsolete.
Gut health-focused startup The Good Bug and women’s health-focused startup Veera Health have launched weight loss supplements that claim to naturally boost the GLP-1 hormone in the body to promote weight loss.
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For Veera Health, which started as a company focused on offering solutions for PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), a common hormonal disorder affecting women, the product has become a best-seller since its launch three months back.
“There was a lot of customer demand for it, and we’ve seen where the market is going…India is the third largest obesity market after the US and China,” Shashwata Narain, co-founder and CEO of Veera Health, told Mint. “Given our existing diet and how we’re just prone to diabetes and many of these metabolic disorders, this is going to be a very important area to solve,” she added.
The Good Bug, which offers gut health solutions, launched its natural GLP-1 supplement earlier this month. The company is positioning itself as a science and R&D-first company. “We’ve been conducting randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials and early pharma-grade trials,” Keshav Biyani, CEO, told Mint. The company has been working on its GLP-1 product for about a year and a half.
Another wellness startup, Wellbeing Nutrition, is seeing a spike in demand for its fibre supplement which was launched last year. The company plans to launch a natural GLP-1 booster supplement in June this year, anticipating growing demand, CEO Avnish Chhabria told Mint.
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Weight loss products make up about 2-3% of the company’s total revenue at the moment, but the company plans to expand the category. “We’ve taken a big bet on this…we’re hoping that this becomes almost 10-12% of our business by next year,” Chhabria said.
According to a 2024 management consulting firm Kearney report, India’s nutraceutical market is estimated to be worth $8 billion. Of this, vitamins, minerals and supplements market (for beauty, weight loss and healthy lifestyle) is worth $1.7 billion, and the functional food and beverages market (including protein drinks, probiotic beverages etc) is worth $6.3 billion. Key players in the segment include FMCG companies, consumer health arms of pharma companies and start-up and D2C ventures.
Alternatives with no side effects
Startups are positioning themselves as alternatives, rather than direct competitors to prescription drugs in the market.
Drugs like Mounjaro can only be prescribed by an MD physician or an endocrinologist, and are meant for individuals with a BMI over 30, with or without type-2 diabetes and with other comorbidities.
They are also priced higher. On the other hand, supplements can be accessed by those that don’t qualify for the drugs or can’t afford the expensive drugs.
“We’ve priced at a very affordable price point – we’re looking at ₹2,000 a month…which comes to ₹5,000-6,000 for 3 months…which is very affordable when you compare it to GLP-1 drugs,” Biyani said.
In comparison, Mounjaro is priced at ₹17,500 monthly for a 5 mg dose. Clinical trials have claimed between 15% and 22.5% of body weight loss on Mounjaro over 72 weeks, depending on the dosage, baseline body weight and other factors like diet and exercise.
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The Good Bug claims its supplement works in three months to cause about 12% weight loss (based on an independent placebo-based trial the company conducted in Maharashtra with 106 patients). Veera Health’s website states that the supplement starts working in one month.
At about ₹2,000 a month, these supplements are relatively cheaper. However, the target audience for these supplements, as well as for weight loss drugs is urban, metropolitan patients who can afford these and possess increasing awareness for these solutions.
“Now we have thousands of women who are choosing it as a natural, side-effect free way to get started with weight loss, much before somebody might start to consider something like Mounjaro or Ozempic,” Narain said.
“There will always be people who don’t want to take medication, or visit doctors…who prefer natural solutions,” a startup founder, who requested anonymity, told Mint.
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Companies like Veera Health and The Good Bug are also pushing their products as alternatives which don’t have any of these side effects.
Drugs like Mounjaro are said to come with a list of side effects like nausea, diarrhoea, decreased appetite, vomiting, constipation, indigestion, and stomach pain.
Health supplements are currently regulated by the Foods Safety and Standards Authority of India (Fssai). However, an expert government panel was formed last year to review whether supplements be shifted under the drug regulator Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to address regulatory challenges.
The FSSAI regulates claims related to food standards and safety, which include marketing, ads and labelling that suggest health, nutritional, or functional benefits. These must be truthful and substantiated with scientific evidence to comply with the Fssai’s 2018 regulations.
The challenges
With the onslaught of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, obesity is now being recognised as a disease globally. But for several decades, it has been a business with a burgeoning industry of supplements, hacks, diet plans and workouts built around it.
Weight loss drugs have been around in the West for over seven years now, with sales of branded obesity drugs being $6 billion in 2023.
Meanwhile, traditional weight-loss models have come under pressure. Earlier this month, health and wellness company WeightWatchers signalled potential bankruptcy. A similar shakeout could play out in India.
“The business models [for gyms, supplement companies, etc] possibly need to change…they are built on long-term engagement, and the underlying theme is that users will get results, but with years of discipline,” said Kiran Mahasuar, assistant professor of strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship at IMT Ghaziabad.
“Now with these drugs coming in, they can actually get results without years of discipline…lifestyle influencers and wellness coaches are going to face skepticism…you can’t say to your prospective client ‘eat clean train dirty’…that would sound very hollow because a weekly injection will do the job,” he said.
They have to possibly pivot their models towards science-backed, drug-informed coaching, he added.
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For the supplement industry, appetite suppressants and fat burners, such as Herbalife, would become obsolete, “unless they reposition themselves”, said Mahasuar.
India was the largest market for Herbalife in 2023, with its Indian arm contributing the largest chunk of revenue at $796.6 million. Herbalife India declined to comment for this story.
However, Mahasuar said supplements like protein powders, self-preserving amino acids and gut health supplements will have more of an opportunity to grow.
Startups are indeed looking beyond GLP-1. Some are planning to introduce products targeting related metabolic issues, such as thyroid dysfunction, and investing in gut health ingredients like prebiotics and postbiotics.
The real market challenge could emerge by next year when India could see generic copies of GLP-1 drugs, priced 90-95% lower.
With generics coming in starting next year, the market for anti-obesity drugs in India could be around ₹8,000 crore, according to Vishal Manchanda, pharma analyst at Systematix Group.
According to data from pharma e-commerce and intelligence platform Pharmarack, the market for weight loss drugs is valued at ₹576 crore as of March 2025. It has almost quadrupled in the last five years, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 44% by value and 23% by volumes, according to the platform.
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Abhijit Bhograj, consultant endocrinologist at Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru said while it may be possible to naturally boost the GLP-1 hormone in the body, it may not be enough to offer the same kind of results as the drugs.
“What we are now offering is a pure science-based approach to fighting obesity…these are life-changing results that so many people have achieved,” Bhograj said.
“On a daily basis, we are getting individuals who are seeking such kind of treatment…they have already seen things online and they are excited,” he said
A Reuters survey of Indian doctors revealed that many of them fielded hundreds of calls immediately post the weight-loss drug’s launch.
“These are [patients] who have attempted weight loss on multiple occasions and have failed on all counts,” Bhograj said.
A 27-year-old individual based in Mumbai said was sceptical of taking injections or even supplements. “I personally don’t have a strong trust factor towards brands and products like this…I had also tried Herbalife at some point, and the products may have worked initially, but it was way too expensive to maintain for too long,” she said. She said she did add some natural supplements like Moringa powder to her daily routine to aid weight loss.
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