December 3 news - Up to now, diabetes has become the third biggest killer after cancer and cardiovascular/cerebrovascular diseases. It is called "the source of all diseases" in the medical community and seriously threatens human health. As a key drug indispensable in many diabetes treatments, insulin has been used in China since the 1960s, and its clinical treatment and market have gradually matured.
In recent years, the domestic insulin market has shown a rapid growth trend, but its competitive landscape is highly concentrated, with foreign enterprises forming a tripartite confrontation, while local enterprises can only struggle to survive in a market share of less than 10%. From a research and development perspective, most of the mature insulin products under development abroad are non-injectable formulations such as oral, nasal administration, and inhalation agents. However, in terms of the development of new insulin formulations domestically, progress is relatively lagging and still in its infancy.
The rising incidence rate is promoting market expansion. The international diabetes care organization ranked China as one of the three countries with the highest number of diabetes patients globally (the other two being India and the United States) as early as 1998. According to the data published by IDF, in 2007, the population aged 20-79 in China was approximately 930 million, with a diabetes prevalence rate of 4.3%, estimating the total number of diabetes patients at 39.8 million. It is predicted that by 2025, the population aged 20-79 will be approximately 1.07 billion, with a diabetes prevalence rate of 5.6%, estimating the total number of diabetes patients at 59 million.
The sharp increase in the number of patients lays the foundation for the high-speed growth of the domestic diabetes drug market and also brings profit opportunities to the pharmaceutical industry. According to IMS statistics, in 2008, the global diabetes drug market reached as high as $27.27 billion, with an annual growth rate of 9.6% calculated at constant exchange rates. According to the WHO's "World Diabetes and Hypoglycemic Drug Market Forecast from 2007 to 2011", calculated at an average annual growth rate of 14.09%, the global insulin market will increase from $7.5 billion in 2005 to $14.5 billion in 2010. Therefore, it can be seen that diabetes will become one of the highly prevalent diseases globally in the coming years, and insulin will become a key variety in the international pharmaceutical market.
Due to its important therapeutic position, insulin has been used in China since the 1960s and has developed into a mature therapeutic drug in clinical practice. Especially in recent years, with the application of recombinant human insulin and new drug delivery technologies, insulin has gained increasing favor among more and more diabetic patients, thus leading to very rapid market development. According to purchasing statistics from hospitals in 22 key cities domestically, since 2005, the amount spent on insulin purchases at hospitals has shown double-digit substantial growth. Among these, in 2008, the insulin purchase amount at key city hospitals domestically was 551 million yuan, representing a 26.27% increase compared to 2007.
In the next few years, due to the increase in the number of type 1 diabetics and late-stage type 2 diabetic patients, along with the international recommendation to start insulin treatment when the beta-cell function of type 2 diabetic patients still secretes insulin well, under the combined effect of these factors, the domestic insulin market will inevitably continue to grow. Insulin analogs are the drugs among all diabetes medications whose therapeutic effects are closest to the natural physiological regulation curve of the human body, making them one of the most promising areas for the future development of diabetes drugs.