One injection a week instead of one a day. The question is what it costs, and whether the switch is worth it.
The American regulator approved it for type 2 diabetes only. India approved it for both.
Last updated: July 2026
Key takeaways
- Awiqli insulin price in India is Rs 2,611 for a 1 ml pen of 700 units, and Rs 7,833 for a 3 ml pen of 2,100 units. That is Rs 3.73 per unit.
- A starting dose of 70 units a week costs about Rs 261, roughly 30 to 40 percent cheaper per unit than daily basal insulin.
- Novo Nordisk launched it in India in July 2026. India is the seventh country to get it.
- It cuts basal insulin injections from 365 a year to 52.
- In 217 Indian trial participants, Awiqli worked as well as daily insulin. Not better.
- The United States FDA approved it for type 2 diabetes only, after an advisory committee voted 7 to 4 against its use in type 1.
Introduction
Awiqli insulin price in India is Rs 2,611 for a 1 ml pen holding 700 units, and Rs 7,833 for a 3 ml pen holding 2,100 units. That works out to Rs 3.73 per unit.
The pen is called FlexTouch. The drug inside it is insulin icodec. It is taken once a week, not once a day.
Novo Nordisk, the Danish company that also makes Ozempic, launched it in New Delhi in July 2026. India is the seventh country where it has gone on sale, and stock reaches pharmacies within the week.
For a person on basal insulin, that drops the number of injections from 365 a year to 52.
Quick answer
A typical starting dose of 70 units a week costs about Rs 261. Novo Nordisk says that makes Awiqli roughly 30 to 40 percent cheaper per unit than the daily basal insulins already sold in India, where 70 units cost between Rs 345 and Rs 453.
Table of contents
- Awiqli insulin price in India
- What Awiqli is and how it works
- Awiqli compared with daily insulin
- What the trials actually found
- Type 1 diabetes, read this part twice
- Awiqli side effects and risks
- Is Awiqli worth the price
Awiqli insulin price in India
| Pen | Insulin units | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Awiqli FlexTouch 1 ml | 700 units | Rs 2,611 |
| Awiqli FlexTouch 3 ml | 2,100 units | Rs 7,833 |
| Cost per unit | Rs 3.73 |
Prices announced by Novo Nordisk India at the launch in New Delhi, July 2026.
What Awiqli is and how it works
Awiqli is a basal insulin. Basal means background. It covers the slow, steady insulin your body needs between meals and through the night.
Insulin icodec binds to albumin, a protein circulating in your blood. Bound insulin cannot act. It sits there. Then it releases slowly, across seven days, which is why a single injection covers the week.
You inject on the same day each week into the abdomen, the thigh, or the upper arm.
With type 2 diabetes, Awiqli can be used alone or alongside your other diabetes medicines.
With type 1 diabetes, Awiqli replaces only the background insulin. You still take rapid-acting insulin before meals. Nothing about that changes.
What Awiqli costs at different doses
Your weekly cost depends entirely on your dose. A person taking 140 units a week pays double.
| Weekly dose | Weekly cost | How long a 700 unit pen lasts |
|---|---|---|
| 70 units | About Rs 261 | 10 weeks |
| 100 units | About Rs 373 | 7 weeks |
| 140 units | About Rs 522 | 5 weeks |
| 210 units | About Rs 783 | Just over 3 weeks |
Calculated at Rs 3.73 per unit, the launch price announced by Novo Nordisk India.
Awiqli compared with daily insulin
Novo Nordisk priced this aggressively, and clinicians noticed. Dr Rajiv Kovil, a Mumbai diabetologist, called the pricing the biggest surprise of the launch, saying it makes the drug accessible rather than exclusive.
| Awiqli (insulin icodec) | Insulin glargine U100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Injection | Once a week | Once a day |
| Injections a year | 52 | 365 |
| Cost for 70 units | About Rs 261 | Rs 345 to Rs 453 |
| Concentration | 700 units per ml | 100 units per ml |
| HbA1c in Indian participants | Comparable | Comparable |
| Approved in India, type 1 | Yes | Yes |
| Approved in India, type 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Approved in the United States, type 1 | No | Yes |
Cost comparison as stated by Novo Nordisk India at the launch.
Look at the last row of that table. It is the one nobody else is showing you.
What the trials actually found
Awiqli was tested in six phase 3a trials called ONWARDS. Five of them, ONWARDS 1 through 5, studied type 2 diabetes across 3,765 adults. ONWARDS 6 studied type 1 diabetes.
In ONWARDS 1, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2023, HbA1c fell from 8.50 percent to 6.93 percent on icodec, against 8.44 percent to 7.12 percent on daily insulin glargine. The gap was 0.19 percentage points in icodec’s favour, and it was statistically significant.
Icodec also beat daily insulin in ONWARDS 2, 3 and 5. In ONWARDS 4 and 6 it matched the daily comparator rather than beating it.
That is the headline every news report ran with. Here is the part they left out.
Indian results were different
Dr V Mohan, Dr Jothydev Kesavadev and Dr L S Murthy examined the 217 Indian participants inside ONWARDS 1, 4 and 6, and published their analysis in Diabetes Therapy in 2025.
In Indian participants, icodec did not beat daily insulin. It matched it.
| Trial | Who | HbA1c difference vs daily insulin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ONWARDS 1 | Type 2, new to insulin | 0.04% (95% CI −0.46 to 0.54) | No real difference |
| ONWARDS 4 | Type 2, on basal bolus | −0.04% (95% CI −0.41 to 0.32) | No real difference |
| ONWARDS 6 | Type 1, on basal bolus | 0.08% (95% CI −0.67 to 0.82) | No real difference |
Indian subgroup analysis. Mohan V, Kesavadev J, Murthy LS and others. Diabetes Therapy. 2025.
Every one of those confidence intervals crosses zero. In plain terms, the difference could just as easily have been chance. The authors say as much themselves, and they add that the trials were never designed to answer questions about a single country’s participants.
So Awiqli is not a better insulin for Indians. It is an equally good insulin, taken once a week instead of seven times.
That still counts for something. It is simply not what the press release says.
Type 1 diabetes, read this part twice
In May 2024, an advisory committee to the United States Food and Drug Administration voted 7 to 4 that the benefits of once-weekly insulin icodec did not outweigh its risk of low blood sugar in type 1 diabetes.
Two months later the FDA sent Novo Nordisk a Complete Response Letter. In plain language, a refusal. The letter raised the manufacturing process and the type 1 indication.
Novo Nordisk applied again in September 2025, this time using only the type 2 data. The FDA approved Awiqli in 2026 for adults with type 2 diabetes. Type 1 was left out.
India approved it for both.
The Indian data points the same way. In ONWARDS 1 and 4, both type 2 trials, icodec produced numerically fewer episodes of clinically significant low blood sugar than insulin glargine. In ONWARDS 6, the type 1 trial, icodec produced numerically more episodes than insulin degludec.
None of this makes Awiqli unsafe in type 1 diabetes. It means the evidence is thinner there, one major regulator was not persuaded, and your endocrinologist needs to make that call with you rather than for you.
Awiqli side effects and three risks worth knowing
Low blood sugar is the main one, as with any insulin. Sweating, shaking, a racing heart, sudden hunger, confusion. Keep glucose tablets or sugar within reach, always.
Weekly insulin adds a wrinkle. Icodec levels peak early in the dosing week, and across the ONWARDS trials hypoglycaemic episodes clustered around days two to four. Watch those days more closely, especially at the start.
Then there is the pen. Awiqli holds 700 units per millilitre. Most insulins in India hold 100. Seven times more concentrated. The prescribing information carries explicit warnings about dosing errors, and confusing this pen with an ordinary one is not a small mistake.
The third is exercise. With daily insulin you can lower tomorrow’s dose before a long walk or a wedding. With a week’s insulin already in your body, you cannot. A post hoc analysis of ONWARDS 1 to 5 found no significant rise in exercise-related hypoglycaemia, but the flexibility is gone, and that matters in real life.
Other reported effects include injection site reactions, swelling in the legs and feet, and weight gain. All familiar to anyone who has used insulin.
Who Awiqli suits
Novo Nordisk says Indians delay starting insulin by seven to nine years, held back by fear of the needle, worry about pain, and the burden of a daily routine.
Dr S K Wangnoo, an endocrinologist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi, has said much the same. Late starts and poor adherence sink outcomes.
If that describes you, one injection a week may be the single change that finally gets you started.
It suits someone with type 2 diabetes beginning basal insulin for the first time. It suits someone already on daily basal insulin who wants the same control with fewer needles.
It calls for caution in type 1 diabetes, where the evidence is weaker. It calls for a careful conversation if your activity swings hard from one day to the next, or if your kidneys are struggling, since ONWARDS 1 to 4 excluded people with severe kidney impairment.
Is Awiqli worth the price?
It costs less per unit than the daily basal insulin most Indians are using now.
It cuts injections from 365 a year to 52, which matters most if the needle is the reason you have not started insulin.
It does not control blood sugar better than daily insulin, at least not among the 217 Indian participants studied in ONWARDS 1, 4 and 6.
It carries a real risk of dosing error, because the pen holds 700 units per millilitre rather than the usual 100.
It rests on thinner evidence in type 1 diabetes, where the United States FDA declined to approve it.
When to talk to your doctor
Do not switch on your own. Awiqli is not a like-for-like swap for your current pen, and the first dose after a switch usually needs adjusting.
Book an appointment before you change anything if you use basal insulin now, if you have type 1 diabetes, if your kidneys are not working well, or if your sugars swing a lot from day to day.
Get medical help straight away if low blood sugar brings confusion, seizures, or loss of consciousness. That is severe hypoglycaemia. It needs treatment, not a biscuit.
The bottom line
Awiqli insulin price in India works out to about Rs 261 a week at a starting dose, cheaper per unit than the daily insulin most people already use.
The convenience is real. Fifty-two injections instead of three hundred and sixty-five is no small thing when the needle is what has been stopping you.
The extra benefit, at least in Indian trial participants, is not real. It works as well as daily insulin. Not better.
And if you have type 1 diabetes, understand this. The American regulator looked at the same data and said no. India said yes. Ask your doctor which of those two positions fits you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Awiqli insulin price in India?
Rs 2,611 for the 1 ml pen with 700 units, and Rs 7,833 for the 3 ml pen with 2,100 units. That is Rs 3.73 per unit. At a 70 unit weekly dose the cost is about Rs 261 a week.
Is Awiqli available in India?
Yes. Novo Nordisk launched it in New Delhi in July 2026 and stock reaches pharmacies within the week. India is the seventh country where it has gone on sale.
Is Awiqli cheaper than daily insulin?
Per unit, yes. Novo Nordisk puts it at 30 to 40 percent cheaper than the daily basal insulins already sold here, where 70 units cost Rs 345 to Rs 453. Your actual cost still depends on your dose.
Who makes Awiqli?
Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company. The same company makes Ozempic. In India it is distributed in partnership with Abbott.
Is Awiqli the same as insulin icodec?
Yes. Awiqli is the brand name. Insulin icodec is the drug inside the pen.
Can people with type 1 diabetes use Awiqli?
In India, yes. It is approved for adults with both types. In the United States it is approved only for type 2 diabetes, after an FDA advisory committee voted 7 to 4 against its use in type 1, citing the risk of low blood sugar. Discuss this with your specialist.
Does Awiqli replace all my insulin?
No. It replaces background insulin only. With type 1 diabetes you still take rapid-acting insulin before meals.
What are the main Awiqli side effects?
Low blood sugar, injection site reactions, swelling in the legs and feet, and weight gain. In the trials, hypoglycaemic episodes clustered on days two to four of the weekly dose.
Why is the pen 700 units per millilitre?
Because a week’s insulin has to fit into one injection. It is seven times more concentrated than the usual 100 unit strength. Never mix the two pens up.
Does Awiqli help with weight loss?
No. It is insulin, not a GLP-1 medicine like Ozempic or Mounjaro. Insulin can cause weight gain.
Medical disclaimer
This article is for education only. It is not medical advice, and it cannot replace an examination by your own doctor. Never start, stop, or change an insulin on your own. If low blood sugar brings confusion, seizures, or fainting, do not wait. Get medical help now.
References and sources
- Novo Nordisk. Novo Nordisk receives Complete Response Letter in the US for once-weekly basal insulin icodec. 2024.
- Mohan V and others. Efficacy and safety of once-weekly insulin icodec in Indian participants with diabetes, results from ONWARDS 1, 4 and 6. Diabetes Ther. 2025.
- Rosenstock J and others. Weekly icodec versus daily glargine U100 in type 2 diabetes without previous insulin. N Engl J Med. 2023.
- Bajaj HS and others. Once-weekly insulin icodec compared with daily basal insulin analogues in type 2 diabetes, participant-level meta-analysis of ONWARDS 1 to 5. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2024.
- ONWARDS post hoc analysis. The effect of once-weekly insulin icodec on physical activity-attributed hypoglycaemia. Diabetologia. 2025.
- ONWARDS post hoc analysis. Efficacy and hypoglycaemia outcomes with once-weekly insulin icodec by kidney function. 2025.
- Medscape. Concerns prompt FDA to seek more info on weekly insulin. 2024.
- HCPLive. FDA approves insulin icodec as first once-weekly basal insulin for type 2 diabetes.
- Medscape drug reference. Awiqli (insulin icodec) dosing, indications and interactions.
- Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia. Awiqli (insulin icodec) product information.
- Novo Nordisk. Insulin icodec explained.
- Reuters, via Medical Dialogues. Novo Nordisk brings once-weekly insulin Awiqli to India. 2026.
Medically reviewed by
This guide was checked for medical accuracy by our review board before publishing.
Dr Praveen Verma, MBBS, MD (Pathology), Pathologist and Clinical Laboratory Specialist.
Dr Himanshu Morya, MBBS, Medical Educator.
Kalpna Singh Shekhawat, BSN, NP, Nurse Practitioner.
About the author
Iraphan Khan, BSN, RN, D.Pharm is the founder of RealMedVision and a Public Health Researcher who creates evidence-based health content from trusted medical sources.
This article is for education and does not replace advice from your own doctor.