A nutraceutical looks to stir-up the weight-loss segment

Weightloss and obesity products are in the spotlight globally, thanks to GLP-1 products such as Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic/Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro.

But fledgeling firm The Good Bug, founded by Keshav Biyani and Prabhu Karthikeyan, is looking to address this segment through their natural, probiotic-fibre blended “weight management” product, expected to be rolled out later this week.

Internally it is being called the “DeepSeek moment”, said Biyani, part of the Future Group promoter family, comparing it to the Chinese AI company’s product that had stirred the AI market. Explaining their excitement on the nutraceutical product, Biyani told businessline, it has been clinically tested and was found to reduce weight by 12 per cent, among other things. Priced at ₹2,000 a month, this will be an over-the-counter (OTC) product, involving powders in two sachets that are mixed and consumed with water, he explained.

Multiple trials

The three month trial on the nutraceutical did not show adverse effects, he said, adding that multiple trials were underway to map long-term impact and so on, on this proprietary product on which the company has also filed a patent, he said. A trial is also being planned in the United States, he said, to get data from a different geography. This would involve about 300 people, of which half would be placebo (who will not be given the product being tested).

The Good Bug was incorporated in 2021, and has a revenue of Rs 100 crore, said Biyani. The product will be manufactured at its plants in Puducherry and Maharashtra, he said, where existing products are also produced. The nutraceutical has FSSAI approvals, he said.

The weightloss and obesity segment is of interest to the global pharmaceutical industry, and GLP-1 products like Novo’s oral semaglutide and Lilly’s injectable Tirzepatide, for example, are available in India. Used to treat Type II diabetes, the product was also seen to reduce weight, leading to celebrities endorsing the product. One of the downsides, however was that people put on weigh, when they got off the drug.

Manohar KN, consultant physician and diabetologist with Manipal Hospital said, the nutraceutical probiotic product had shown promising results when compared to the standard line of treatment. The product had been tested on 106 people (half of them placebo), in two hospitals in Maharashtra. Manohar was the principal investigator for the trial, and more trials are lined-up, The good Bug representatives said.