Indian drugmakers Eris Lifesciences, Wockhardt and Lupin are prepping to cash in when Danish company Novo Nordisk bows out of the human insulin pen market by the end of this year and creates an opportunity estimated to be worth Rs 600-800 crore in the domestic market. Some self-use disposable pens are pre-filled with insulin and others can be reused with new cartridges.
India is home to more than 100 million diabetics, and the demand for anti-diabetic drugs is on the rise -- the Rs 20,611 crore anti-diabetic drug market in India is growing at 9 per cent or so.
An analysis of over 2,000 patient samples from Delhi-NCR by Dr Dangs Lab revealed that 15 per cent of patients with an HbA1c score above 6.5 per cent exhibited elevated levels of NT-proBNP, a crucial biomarker for early heart failure detection. A study by Joshi of 1,054 patients in Mumbai found that 34 per cent of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) patients are at increased risk of cardiovascular complications.
'Pollution acts as an endocrine disruptor.' 'When it acts as an endocrine disruptor it has an effect on the endocrine system of the human body and the effect on the pancreas is an important one.' 'The way you get type two diabetes is due to two defects.' 'One is the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin.' 'The other physiological defect is insulin resistance.'
At SUGAR, the emphasis will be on prevention, timely diagnosis and treatment of diabetes.
Exposure to higher air pollution levels for several hours a day can increase insulin resistance in the body and further affect those with diabetes, says diabetologist Dr Manoj Chawla.
Avocation B (AvoB), a fat molecule found only in avocados counters incomplete oxidation in skeletal muscle and the pancreas to reduce insulin resistance.
"Move more, eat less; it makes perfect sense," says Rita (Shah) Batheja, dietician and nutritionist, who was the recent recipient of the 2009 Diabetes Care and Education Legislative Activity Award of the American Dietetic Association. Use food as medicine, she added, and practice yoga and meditation on a daily basis to heal yourself, especially if you have diabetes.
Biocon has tied up with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance to market its insulin, Insugen. Accordingly, the company will offer insulin at a subsidised rate to all 'diabetic care' insurance policyholders of the insurance company.
Over 20 per cent of Indian children suffer from obesity, putting them at a grave risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, stated a manual.
Diabetes is no longer a rich man's disease. The changing lifestyle of Indians has made them prone to Type 2 diabetes, earning notorious distinction for India as the 'diabetic capital of the world'.
Dhruv Gupta explains how, as more and more young people fall prey to diabetes, organisaions get affected and how companies can contain the losses due to drop in productivity.
In a surprise announcement in April, Sun and Ranbaxy -- at that time owned by Japan's Daiichi -- declared an all-stock deal to create India's largest and world's fifth-largest drugmaker in an over $4 billion deal.