Semaglutide showdown: Natco challenges Novo Nordisk patent

Key Highlights

• If a patent is revoked, the patent holder loses exclusive rights over the invention, allowing competitors to manufacture and sell the product.
• Natco’s petition escalates the ongoing legal battle over semaglutide, one of the world’s most valuable and closely contested pharmaceutical drugs, as Indian companies prepare to enter the market with generics once the patent expires.
• Novo Nordisk, whose Indian patent for semaglutide nears expiry in March 2026, has already approached the Delhi high court seeking to restrain Indian manufacturers, including Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, from producing and exporting semaglutide, arguing that such activities infringe its patent rights.
• In August 2025, Natco sued Novo Nordisk seeking a declaration that its version of semaglutide does not infringe the multinational’s device- or process-related patent technology.
• In that matter, the court directed the parties to undergo pre-litigation mediation.