International pharmaceutical majors, with an eye on the Rs 1,800-crore anti-diabetes market in India, have lined up medicines for the type 2-diabetes.
While Eli Lilly has just launched Byetta, a type 2-diabetes drug, after it forayed into the US and Europe, Merck & Co is scheduled to launch Januvia soon. Merck has already submitted necessary documents to the Drug Controller General of India on Januvia, sources said.
Byetta is the brand name for exenatide, a drug obtained from the desert-dwelling lizard, Gila monster. The injectible type 2-diabetes drug was launched in Germany in April this year and later in Britain after it had got approval from European health regulators. The medicine, chemically known as exanatide, was approved for sale in the US in April 2005.
According to sources in the industry, the size of the insulin market in India is around Rs 400 crore and it is growing at a rate of 10%. The market size for oral hypoglycaemic agents (OHA) is Rs 1,400 crore and it is growing at 14% annually. The type 1-diabetes accounts for 60%, while type 2 accounts for 40%.
Januvia, a DPP-4 blocker (which enhances body’s ability to control blood sugar levels), was launched in overseas markets recently.
Sandeep Gupta, chief managing director of Lilly India, said: “Exenatide is the first among a new class of anti-diabetic medicines known as incretin mimetics (works by mimicking the anti-diabetic actions of the naturally occurring human incretin hormone).”
According to the International Diabetes Federation, the number of diabetes patients is increasing in India and it may touch 8 crore by 2025.