South Africa’s health products regulator (SAHPRA) said on Tuesday, July 21, that it is reviewing 12 applications for generic versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy. Approval of these applications could bring lower-cost alternatives to South Africa and intensify competition in the fast-growing GLP-1 market currently dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.
Two things are driving this alongside it:
- Both companies already face growing competition from compounded (custom-mixed) versions of the drugs, prompting South African regulators to step up monitoring of that compounded-drug market.
- Novo Nordisk itself is responding to the pressure with a planned launch this month of a more affordable, authorised copy of Ozempic in South Africa, through a partnership with healthcare company Acino aimed at widening patient access.
Context on the broader SA market
This regulatory move builds on a trend Spotlight (a South African health-focused outlet) has been tracking closely: GLP-1s remain unavailable in South Africa’s public healthcare sector, and their high cost limits private-sector access mostly to wealthier patients, with medical aid schemes covering only some diabetes cases. Despite that, Ozempic spending has surged — climbing from position 170 in 2023 to position 12 in 2024 on Mediscor’s list of top drivers of medicine spending among South African medical schemes. A separate consumer study found roughly one in 20 South Africans is already using or considering GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro.
This ties directly back to the Aspen Pharmacare story we discussed earlier — Aspen is one of several manufacturers racing to bring generic semaglutide to market as patents lapse across multiple countries, Canada and now potentially South Africa among them.
Sources:
- CNBC Africa / Reuters (July 21, 2026) — SAHPRA generic applications
- Spotlight / MedicalBrief / AllAfrica (Feb–July 2026) — GLP-1 access and pricing in South Africa
- Financial Mail Business Day (Feb 9, 2026)