New Delhi, March 9 -- In a setback for Novo Nordisk, the Delhi High Court on Monday upheld an order permitting Dr. Reddy's Laboratories to manufacture diabetes and weight-loss drug semaglutide in India for export to countries where the innovator doesn't hold a patent, dismissing the Danish drugmaker's appeal.

A division bench of justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla said that it did not find reason to interfere with a previous single-judge bench's order that allowed Dr. Reddy's to manufacture semaglutide and export it to non-patent countries.

The ruling comes just days before semaglutide loses its patent exclusivity in India on 20 March, which would allow generics to be manufactured and marketed domestically.

The division benc...