Until recently, a key diabetes and weight-loss drug by Novo Nordisk was priced out of reach for most Indians.

That changed almost overnight.

With a patent expiry, multiple Indian companies have entered the market, and prices have dropped sharply within days.

But this isn’t just a pricing story.

It touches on how pharma monopolies work, why India’s patent laws matter, and what happens when a single company becomes too important to a country’s economy.

This piece breaks it down in a simple, step-by-step way.