South African pharma giant seals deal for weight-loss drugs

South Africa’s Aspen said on Monday it had secured regulatory approval to market Eli Lilly’s blockbuster diabetes and obesity drug, Mounjaro, for chronic weight management in the country.

The greenlight follows Aspen’s earlier approval and launch of the drug, chemically called tirzepatide, in South Africa last December as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes.

Aspen, a sales agent for Lilly, will launch Mounjaro for weight management in South Africa as an easy-to-use KwikPen injector device.

The company has been betting on Mounjaro’s imminent launch to compete against Novo Nordisk’s rival product, Wegovy, which the Danish drugmaker had debuted in South Africa in August, eight months after Eli Lilly.

The approval by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority positions Aspen to tap into the booming weight-loss drug market, which is estimated to reach at least $100 billion by the end of the decade, as global demand for obesity treatments continues to soar.

Patents for the blockbuster drugs expire in some countries starting in March, and Aspen expects to make its version for less than half the average global price, CEO Stephen Saad told Bloomberg in September.

Aspen anticipates that it may start generating revenue from generic semaglutide GLP-1 effort before June 2026. It’s likely to initially sell its version in other emerging markets and Canada and then from 2030 in Europe, the US and Australia, he said.

Sales in South Africa of Mounjaro are “shooting the lights out,” Saad said. In a couple of years it may reach R1 billion “which would be a first” in the local private market.

This plan comes after Aspen swung to a loss in its 2025 financial year, as significant impairments weighed on its earnings.

The company made a loss of R1.08 billion for the year, compared to a R4.4 billion profit in its 2024 financial year.

This is despite a strong performance from the group’s core pharma business, Commercial Pharmaceuticals, which comprises more than 70% of the group’s revenue.

One of the biggest blows to Aspen’s operations in 2025 was its ongoing contract dispute related to a manufacturing and technology agreement with a contract manufacturing customer for mRNA products.

This dispute led to Aspen earning far less from its manufacturing business over the period compared to 2024.

Another hit came from new minimum tax rules implemented in South Africa and Mauritius in the period, which increased Aspen’s tax rate and boosted impairments by R1.7 billion.

Aspen saw significant impairments over the 2025 financial year, a total of R4.1 billion, which includes the tax impact, the mRNA dispute and some underperforming regions.