The rapid growth of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss is prompting pharmaceutical companies to look beyond the medicines themselves, with wellness and nutraceuticals emerging as adjacent opportunities in the fast-growing weight-management market.
Pharmaceutical companies have increasingly been acquiring wellness and nutraceutical businesses as they seek to build broader portfolios around the growing use of GLP-1 medicines such as semaglutide.
Companies including Sun Pharma and USV have acquired wellness businesses in the past six to 12 months, with some deals valued at around ₹1,000-₹1,500 crore.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, for instance, agreed to acquire 100 per cent of Mumbai-based Innovcare Lifesciences for ₹271.2 crore in an all-cash transaction. Innovcare markets and distributes pharmaceutical drugs, branded nutraceuticals, functional foods and cosmeceutical products in India. The acquisition gives Sun Pharma a stronger presence in the consumer health and wellness space.
USV, meanwhile, acquired a 79 per cent stake in Nutritionalab, the company behind the Wellbeing Nutrition brand, for Rs 1,583 crore in February 2026. The deal marks a significant expansion by the pharmaceutical company into the nutraceutical and wellness space. It underlines the growing interest among drugmakers in consumer health products alongside their core pharmaceutical businesses.
Cipla also acquired a 100 per cent stake in Inzpera Healthsciences in December 2025, in a move to strengthen its presence in the wellness segment. Inzpera develops, manufactures, and markets differentiated wellness products, focusing on products that address nutritional gaps and improve treatment compliance through innovative formulations, dosage forms and easier delivery.
The opportunity is linked to the appetite-suppressing effect of GLP-1 medicines, which can lead patients to consume less food. This has created interest in nutritional products that can potentially complement weight-management therapies.
Kilitch has also moved into the wellness segment with Royvit, a vitamin and nutritional supplement available in sachet and effervescent tablet formats, said Bhavin Mehta, Whole-time Director of Kilitch Drugs.
“So we have gone into wellness,” he said, explaining the company’s move.
He said the product was developed with GLP-1 users in mind, amid concerns about lower food and nutrient intake among people taking weight-loss medicines. “Nowadays, if people are taking semaglutide or weight-loss medicines, they don’t eat. When they don’t eat, the nutrients are supposed to be there. So all the vitamins are required for replenishing when you don’t eat,” Mehta said.
He said feedback from doctors was also behind the decision to develop the product. “A lot of doctors are complaining that, due to the inhibition of the food, the daily intake of vitamins is not there. Or the daily intake of nutrients is not there. So because of that, we said we’ll launch this,” he said.
Kilitch is also preparing to enter the GLP-1 drug market itself, with Mehta saying the company plans to launch a GLP-1 drug in December. This would give the company exposure to both the core weight-loss drug market and the wellness segment developing around it.
He said emerging opportunities are also attracting global consumer-health companies, with pharmaceutical and packaged-food companies exploring products ranging from high-protein nutrition to fortified supplements and meal solutions for people using GLP-1 medicines.
Published on September 9, 2026
