Health and wellness startups such as Good Bugs, Healthy Nutrition and Veera Health are launching weight loss products to target appetite regulation, gut health and metabolic diseases. These are sold as cheap, easy to use weight loss alternatives.
With conversations around weight loss from healthy leadership to clinic leaders, experts believe that the weight loss industry is built on lifestyle coaches and supplements that must be reinvented or may be outdated.
Health-centric startup Good Bugs and Women’s Health-centric startup Veera Health has launched weight loss supplements that claim naturally strengthens GLP-1 hormones in the body to promote weight loss.
Can also read |Magnesium Mania: Startups can ride a new health boom. But is this all hype?
For Veera Health, the company started out as a solution focused on providing solutions for PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), a common hormone disorder that affects women, and the product has become a bestseller since it launched three months ago.
“There is a lot of demand for this from customers and we have seen the market grow… India is the third largest obesity market after the United States and China,” said Shashwata Narain, co-founder and CEO of Veera Health. Mint. She added: “Given our current diet and how we are prone to diabetes and many of these metabolic disorders, this will be a very important solution.”
Good Bugs, which offers gut health solutions, launched a natural GLP-1 supplement earlier this month. The company positiones itself as Science and R&D-First Company. “We have been doing randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials and early-stage pharmaceutical-grade trials,” CEO Keshav Biyani told Mint. The company has been developing its GLP-1 products for a year and a half.
Another health startup, Wellbeing Nutrition, saw a surge in demand for fiber supplements launched last year. CEO Avnish Chhabria told Mint.
Read this | Will copy of the weight loss drug Ozempic bet on payback?
Weight loss products currently account for about 2-3% of the company’s total revenue, but the company plans to expand the category. “We have made a big bet on this … we hope that this will be 10-12% of the business next year,” Chabria said.
According to a 2024 management consulting firm Kearney report, India’s nutrition market is estimated to be worth $8 billion. Of these, the vitamins, minerals and supplement market (for beauty, weight loss and healthy lifestyle) is worth $1.7 billion, and the functional food and beverage market (including protein drinks, probiotic drinks, etc.) is worth $6.3 billion. Key players in the sector include FMCG, the consumer health division of pharmaceutical companies, as well as startups and D2C Ventures.
Alternatives without side effects
Startups position themselves as alternatives, rather than pushing competitors directly to the market for prescription drugs.
Drugs like Mounjaro can only be prescribed by an MD physician or an endocrinologist and are suitable for people over 30 years of BMI, with or without type 2 diabetes, and other comorbidities.
They are also at higher prices. On the other hand, those who do not meet drugs or cannot afford expensive drugs can use supplements.
“Our price is very cheap – we are considering ₹2,000 per month… ₹5,000-6,000 3 months…It’s very affordable when you compare it to GLP-1 drugs. ” Biyani said.
By comparison, the price of Mounjaro is ₹17,500 doses per month 5 mg. Based on dose, baseline weight and other factors, such as diet and exercise, clinical trials claim that Mounjaro has 15% to 22.5% of weight loss within 72 weeks.
Read this |As global demand soars, Ozempic-like weight loss drugs power the power supply
The good mistake claims that its supplement works within three months, resulting in about 12% weight loss (based on an independent placebo-based trial conducted by the company in Maharashtra, with 106 patients). Veera Health’s website noted that the supplement started working within a month.
About ₹These supplements are relatively cheap for 2,000 per month. However, the target audience for these supplements, as well as weight loss medications, is the metropolitan patients in the city who can afford these solutions and have an increasing awareness of them.
“Now, we have thousands of women choosing it as a natural, side-effect free effect to lose weight, before someone starts thinking about something like Mounjaro or Ozempic,” Nalan said.
“There will always be people who don’t want to take medication or visit a doctor… prefer natural solutions,” a founder who asked to be anonymous told the Mint.
Can also read |Eli Lilly
Companies like Veera Health and Good Bug also use their products as alternatives without any side effects.
Drugs like Mounjaro are said to list side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, decreased appetite, vomiting, constipation, indigestion and stomach pain.
Currently, health supplements are regulated by the Food Safety and Standards Agency of India (FSSAI). However, a professional government team was set up last year to review whether supplements were transferred under the Central Drug Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) to address regulatory challenges.
FSSAI stipulates claims related to food standards and safety, including marketing, advertising and labeling, indicating health, nutrition or functional benefits. These must be true and confirmed by scientific evidence to comply with FSSAI’s 2018 regulations.
challenge
With fierce attacks on GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, obesity is now considered a global disease. But for decades it has been a business that thrives around the supplements, hacks, diet plans and exercises it builds.
Weight loss pills have been around the West for more than seven years, while branded obesity drugs sales are $6 billion in 2023.
Meanwhile, traditional weight loss models are under pressure. Earlier this month, the Health & Wellness Company’s weight watches indicated potential bankruptcy. Similar wavering may occur in India.
“Business Model” [for gyms, supplement companies, etc] Changes may need to be made…they are built on long-term engagement, and the basic theme is that users will get results, but with years of discipline.
“Now, with these drugs coming in, they can actually get results without years of discipline… Lifestyle influencers and health coaches will face skepticism… You can’t say to potential customers “eat clean trains dirty dirty trains”, which sounds hollow because a weekly injection does that,” he said.
He added that they may have to transfer the model to a scientifically supported, drug-based coaching aspect.
Can also read |The government adds 100 key drugs to expand the availability of affordable drugs in Janaushadhi Kendras
For the supplement industry, appetite suppressants and fat burners such as Herbalife will become obsolete “unless they reposition”, Mahasuar said.
India is the largest Herbalife market in 2023, with its Indian arm contributing the largest revenue at $796.6 million. Herbalife India declined to comment on the story.
However, supplements such as protein powder, self-assured amino acids and gut health supplements will have more opportunities for growth, Mahasul said.
Startups do surpass GLP-1. Some plan to introduce products targeting related metabolic problems, such as thyroid dysfunction, and invest in gut health ingredients such as prebiotics and epibiotics.
The real market challenge is likely to emerge next year, when India can see a universal copy of GLP-1 drug at a price of 90-95% lower.
With the start of generic drugs next year, India’s anti-obesity drugs may be ₹Vishal Manchanda, a drug analyst at Systematix Group, said Rs 8,000 crore.
The value of the weight loss drug market, according to Pharma e-commerce and intelligence platform Pharmack ₹As of March 2025, Rs 576 crore has almost tripled in the past five years, with annual interest growth of 44% and 44% in the growth rate, divided into 23%.
Can also read |Minn Interpreter: How big is the weight loss pill market in India
While it is possible to naturally enhance GLP-1 hormone in the body, it may not be enough to provide the same results as the drug, said Abhijit Bhograj, an endocrine consultant at Manipal Hospital in Bangalore.
“What we are now offering is a purely science-based approach to fighting obesity … these people have changed the achievements of many people,” Bhograj said.
“Every day, we’re looking for people who are looking for this kind of treatment… They’ve seen things online and they’re excited,” he said.
Many of them made hundreds of calls immediately after the weight loss medication was fired, a Reuters survey of Indian doctors showed.
“These are all [patients] They have tried to lose weight several times and failed in all respects. ” Bhograj said.
A 27-year-old from Mumbai said he was skeptical of the injection or even the supplement. “I personally don’t have a strong trust factor in brands and products like this…I’ve tried Herbalife at some point, and these products may have worked initially, but they are too expensive to last for too long,” she said. She did add some natural supplements to her daily routine, such as Moringa powder, to help lose weight.
Can also read |India produces key pharmaceutical ingredients under PLI program to reduce China’s dependence
