
Lupin plans to bring new class of diabetes drug to India
Mumbai: Lupin Ltd, India’s second largest pharmaceutical company, is looking to enhance its diabetes drugs offering in the domestic market by bringing in a new class of drugs through the in-licensing route, a senior company official said.
Under in-licensing, a company gets a licence to market a product of another company in one or more geographies.
Lupin’s current diabetes products’ basket includes different classes of drugs such as oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs), insulins and novel drugs like sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor drug empagliflozin, and Dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor drug linagliptin.
“When it comes to diabetes, we have a complete range of products. One thing, we are missing is GLP 1 analog, which we are looking to bring into our portfolio,” Rajeev Sibal, president, India Region Formulations, Lupin, told Mint.
GLP 1 or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist helps normalise blood sugar levels.
In India, GLP 1 class of drugs is sold by Novo Nordisk, Eli Lily and Co. and Sanofi, in injectable form.
According to data from healthcare information provider QuintilesIMS, Novo Nordisk sells its drug through partner Abbott India under brand name Victoza, Eli Lily under the brand Trulicity, and Sanofi under the brand Lyxumia. The prices of these injections are in the range of Rs3,100 to Rs4,000.
In the area of diabetes, Lupin has had in-licensing deals with US-based Eli Lilly and German company Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH over the last two-three years to bring in new classes of drugs to the Indian market.
The overall market size of di
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