The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has increased prices of 62 drugs, including human insulin, giving a boost to local manufacturers. The NPPA has increased the price of locally-manufactured human insulin by up to 18.55 percent after considering the rising conversion cost, packing charges, process loss and packing material.

Mr Sameer Savkur, managing director of IMS Health Information and Consulting Services India, says, “Price revisions are on account of the increase in product input costs. These are reviewed by NPPA on an ongoing basis, and revised as thought necessary for all molecules and formulations under price control.” The price increase will help the local insulin manufacturers – namely Biocon and Wockhardt who account for nearly 10 percent of the total insulin market of 612 crore. Multinational firms have over 75 percent of the marketshare, including Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which have 53 percent and 22 percent respectively.

To overcome competition in the local market, indigenous insulin manufacturers have entered into global alliance with several US companies. In February, this year, Wockhardt entered into a strategic global alliance with US-based Sheffield Bio-Science, under which the latter will have exclusive sales and distribution rights to supply recombinant insulin to the cell culture markets.

In October, last year, Biocon signed a mega marketing deal with Pfizer to globally commercialize biosimilar versions of Insulin and Insulin analog products: Recombinant Human Insulin, Glargine, Aspart and Lispro. According to the deal, Pfizer will make upfront payments worth $200 million. Biocon is also eligible to receive additional development and regulatory milestone payments of up to $150 million and will receive additional payments linked to Pfizer’s sales of its four Insulin biosimilar products across the global markets.

The price increase from NPPA and the global alliance with US companies will definitely boost insulin sales and earn revenue for the companies in the near future.

Narayan Kulkarni, Bangalore