Pharma firms introduce advanced medications to help patients control diabetes, obesity

KARACHI: Pharmaceutical firms in Pakistan recently introduced advanced GLP-1- and GIP-based medications for people living with chronic diabetes amid the health crisis escalating to an alarming level with one in three adults reported living with high blood sugar, making Pakistan the third most affected country in the world.

In addition to imports, some pharmaceutical firms started manufacturing and supplying the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP)-based medications locally to help control type 2 diabetes and obesity in the country, it was learnt.

According to the government, World Health Organisation (WHO), and International Diabetes Federation (IDF) statistics of 2025, there are 34.5 million people living with diabetes in Pakistan.

READ MORE: Diabetes crisis deepens: Over 3.4m Pakistanis at risk of amputations: experts

Besides, over nine million Pakistanis remained undiagnosed, while 57 percent of women and 41 percent of men are overweight or obese, increasing their risk of type 2 diabetes by up to seven times.

Talking to Business Recorder, Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) former chairman Dr Kaiser Waheed said recent reports and surveys suggested that almost 30% of the adult population of Pakistan was living with diabetes. This includes juvenile diabetes (type 1 diabetes).

To help control the health crisis, he said, pharmaceutical firms had launched advanced medications for people living with diabetes at cheaper prices compared to the ones imported at what he said an exorbitant cost.

He maintained that the GLP-1 medications improve insulin, slow digestion and reduce hunger, while the dual GIP/GLP-1 medications amplify the effect.

Ozempic, Zeptide, and Mounjaro are a few such medications available in injection form in Pakistan among others that are administered once a week on doctors’ advice only. The medicine in tablet form may be recommended for daily usage.

Pakistan allows only those medicines that have already been introduced in developed countries.

“Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has criteria that bind pharmaceutical firms to launch only SRA- (stringent regulatory body) approved medicines in the country – the medicines which have already been introduced in developed countries,“ Dr Waheed said.

At the same time, he emphasised, people have to improve their lifestyle, take a balanced diet, and do exercises like walking to regulate blood glucose.

“Pakistan’s world class bowler and cricketer Wasim Akram has managed diabetes through maintaining a healthy lifestyle, balanced diet, and exercises,“ he said.

Dr Waheed said the local pharmaceutical firms had introduced the new medicines at a significantly low prices ranging between Rs5,000-15,000/per packet that carries four dosages.

“This price range used to vary from Rs150,000 to Rs300,000/ per packet when the medicines were being imported.”

Novo Nordisk Pharma, the supplier of Ozempic in Pakistan, said, “The GLP-1 therapies we have pioneered are changing how diabetes and obesity are treated around the world, and here in Pakistan we are working with healthcare professionals and

authorities to help shift the system from repeatedly treating complications to preventing them in the first place”.

“We’ve been here [in Pakistan] since 1989, and over these decades our treatments have helped countless people living with diabetes and now we are bringing that same commitment to the growing challenge of obesity.”

Diabetes and obesity expert, and professor of medicines, Dr Mohammad Ali Arif explained that the underlying causes of the predominant type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance, meaning the body is able to make insulin but it does not work the way it should do.

“The major driver of insulin resistance is obesity or being overweight. So, both - type 2 diabetes and the prevalence of obesity - work in tandem and make the situation worse overall.

“Our focus has to be on our diet, but what we eat is terrible. We have a very high intake of refined carbohydrates, fried foods, fast food, and processed foods in Pakistan. We underestimate our caloric intake and overestimate our caloric output.

Besides, we have very, very limited exercise and physical activities,” he lamented.

Arif said stakeholders needed to address root causes of the diseases, starting from educational institutions and at home.

“Parents and teachers should tell children that being overweight is a disease. Schools and colleges’ canteens should serve healthy food options. Sugary beverages, fried, fast food, and processed foods should be made so expensive to make them out of reach of the people,” he said.

Besides, medications are now available to control weight and to possibly delay diabetes.

“So, we need to take a holistic approach, need to control our weight, take a healthy diet, do physical activities and exercise, and consult doctors to get prescriptions to reduce weight,” Dr Arif stressed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026