Semaglutide patent expiry map shows copies in India Canada and Brazil while China waits until 2027

Semaglutide patent expiry has moved from a forecast to a set of dates on a map. Since March 2026 the main patent on the molecule behind Ozempic and Wegovy has lapsed in India, China and Brazil, Canada has approved its first copy, and generic makers have moved at different speeds in each. This explainer lays out where copies are on sale, where they are still blocked, who makes them, and why Novo Nordisk is now leaning on its Wegovy pill.

Where copies are already on sale

India moved first. Novo Nordisk's first quarter report says the semaglutide compound patent in India expired on 20 March 2026 and that rival companies launched generics during the quarter. Eris Lifesciences launched a vial brand on 20 March, and Natco Pharma, which had received approval from the Indian regulator in February, followed a day later, Outlook Business reported. European Business Magazine counts at least a dozen makers on the market within days of expiry, the lowest priced near one quarter of what Novo charged. Indian makers also sell tablets: Torrent Pharmaceuticals has said it holds more than 90 percent of generic oral semaglutide sales there. In India the patent clock has run out completely, and price competition has started in both vials and pens across a crowded field.

Canada was the first G7 country to authorise a generic semaglutide injection, according to Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. Health Canada issued its notice of compliance on 28 April 2026, and the company announced the launch on 15 May, for adults with type 2 diabetes. Dr. Reddy's said it makes the active ingredient in its own facilities, while OneSource Specialty Pharma makes the finished pen, according to PharmTech. In Brazil, the patent expired in March, and on 26 May ANVISA approved Ozivy, a pen from the local company EMS, made at an EMS plant in São Paulo state with capacity for up to 40 million pens a year, Reuters reported. Torrent now targets a Brazil launch within nine months.

China waits on a data protection clock

China shows that a patent date is not the only clock. The semaglutide patent there expired in March 2026, but Novo Nordisk says it keeps regulatory data protection until April 2027 under a free trade agreement between China and Switzerland, because its Swiss entity holds the Ozempic approval in China, Bloomberg reported via SWI swissinfo. Hangzhou Jiuyuan, the first Chinese company to file a copy, said in March that its review had been suspended under data protection terms. Novo's own first quarter report notes an antitrust lawsuit in China claiming the company improperly gained a longer period of exclusivity under the 2014 agreement. The outcome of that case is not yet known.

In the US and Europe, the main patents run into the early 2030s, according to European Business Magazine, so the generic wave stays outside those markets for now.

The queue in China is long. European Business Magazine says more than ten companies are waiting, and our earlier story on Chinese makers lining up copies set out the field before the patent lapsed. When data protection ends, China could add a large group of new producers at once. The magazine argues that cheap Chinese copies would then push semaglutide prices down well beyond China, a view rather than a forecast from any company. In the US and Europe, the main patents run into the early 2030s, according to European Business Magazine, so the generic wave stays outside those markets for now. For now the generic race is playing out in places such as India, Brazil and Canada.

The Wegovy pill as Novo's answer

Novo Nordisk's main response is a tablet. The FDA approved the Wegovy pill, a once daily oral form of semaglutide for weight management, in a decision the company announced on 22 December 2025. Novo said in its first quarter report that it launched the pill in the US on 5 January 2026, calling it the first oral GLP 1 for weight loss. Sales in the first quarter reached DKK 2,256 million, which the company said included initial stocking by wholesalers and telehealth partners. Prescriptions in that quarter reached about 1.3 million. By the time of the European Business Magazine feature, more than five million prescriptions had been written and about 1.5 million patients were taking it, the magazine reported.

The pill matters for the patent story because its clock is different. According to European Business Magazine, chief executive Mike Doustdar says the tablet's absorption technology has its own patents, which he expects to keep copies away until the mid to late 2030s. That is a company claim, and the patents have not been tested against challengers. Eli Lilly also has a pill, which showed smaller weight loss in its own trials, the magazine notes, though the two have never been compared head to head. The Lilly drug is not a peptide at all, and our report on Lilly's Houston plant explains why that changes how it is made. The two tablets point to different supply chains for the same market.

What semaglutide patent expiry means for supply

For manufacturing, semaglutide patent expiry spreads production away from one company's network. Novo has long made the ingredient in its own plants, but generic supply now comes from Indian firms that make their own ingredient, from a Brazilian maker with a large local pen plant, and from contract partners that fill pens for others. Some smaller firms are building toward the same market, such as Kilitch Drugs, which plans a new Pen site in Maharashtra with GLP 1 therapies on its list. Each new maker brings its own process, its own impurity profile and its own regulator file. That widens supply, but it also puts more weight on inspections and on how each country checks imported ingredient.

Prices follow the number of makers. In India, European Business Magazine says, the cheapest copies sold for about a quarter of Novo's price soon after the patent ended. Novo has said it expects loss of exclusivity in certain markets to hurt its 2026 sales. What is still open is how fast copies reach the next wave of countries, whether China starts approving generics in April 2027 as Novo's account implies, and whether the pill's separate patents hold. For plant planners, the answer decides where new peptide capacity is worth building: close to the generic markets, or close to the patented pill that Novo hopes will carry its business into the next decade.

Conclusion

Semaglutide patent expiry has already opened India, Canada and Brazil to generic makers, while China waits on a data protection date of April 2027 and the US and Europe stay protected into the early 2030s. New supply is coming from Indian ingredient makers, a Brazilian pen plant and contract fillers. Novo's answer is the Wegovy pill, whose separate patents it says run into the mid to late 2030s.