India's weight-loss drug boom - and the risks behind it
57 minutes ago Share Save Soutik Biswas India correspondent Share Save
Reuters India's anti-obesity drug market has seen a sixfold jump in five years
The calls come thick and fast to Mumbai-based diabetologist Rahul Baxi - but not just from patients struggling to control blood sugar. Increasingly, it is young professionals asking the same thing: "Doctor, can you start me on weight-loss drugs?" Recently, a 23-year-old man came in, worried about the 10kg he'd gained after starting a demanding corporate job. "One of my gym friends is on [weight loss] jabs," he said. Dr Baxi says he refused, asking him what he would do after losing 10kg on the drug. "Stop, and the weight comes back. Keep going, and without exercise you'll start losing muscle instead. These medicines aren't a substitute for a proper diet or lifestyle change," he told him. Such conversations are becoming increasingly common as demand for weight-loss drugs explodes in urban India - a country with the world's second-largest number of overweight adul
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