Sanofi-Aventis to shore up diabetes biz
Europe’s largest pharma company Sanofi-Aventis has decided to shore up its diabetes business in India
By TNN |
KOLKATA: Europe���s largest pharma company Sanofi-Aventis has decided to shore up its diabetes business in India. The company has started research to launch India-specific combination drugs and plans to roll out its blockbuster insulin ���Apidra��� in India by the year end. It may also look at the option to make India a global manufacturing hub for insulin.
Its Indian arm, Aventis Pharma, is the third largest player in both oral diabetes drug and insulin segment. It enjoys around 7.9% market share in the oral segment and close to 7% market share in the insulin market. It expects new launches will shore up its market share in the highly fragmented domestic market by 3-4%.
���The market for combination drugs is quite big in India. Hence, we plan to develop such India-specific medicines. These products should hit the market next year. We want to ensure that such combination drugs have 100% bio-equivalence as the original medicine,��� Aventis Pharma senior director (cardio-metabolism business unit) Susheel Umesh said.
Aventis Pharma is working on multiple leads for such combinations drugs. While the company is developing these drugs in its Indian R&D facilities, Mr Umesh said the company may also use the expertise of the recently operational Asian Pharmaceutical Development Centre in Goa.
The company also plans to roll out its rapid-acting insulin ���Apidra��� in India around September-October. This will be second insulin analogue which the company will launch in India after ���Lantus��� in 2003. ���Apidra will be the next big launch from our global product stable in India,��� said Mr Umesh.
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