 "Vikrant Shrotriya, Corporate Vice President & Managing Director, Novo Nordisk India Private Limited")
India has become a critical market and clinical trial hub for Novo Nordisk as the Danish drug major focuses on chronic diseases beyond diabetes.
Novo Nordisk, which currently enjoys over a 50 per cent share of India’s insulin market, is planning to introduce its long-acting basal insulin Icodec that needs to be taken only once a week and an obesity drug in the country by 2025. It has started conversations with its manufacturing partner Torrent Pharmaceuticals to double its manufacturing capacity.
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Speaking with Business Standard, Vikrant Shrotriya, managing director and corporate vice-president for India business at Novo Nordisk, said: “Our focus is chronic diseases, and we are getting active there -- we want to have therapies for the entire chronic diseases spectrum. All these diseases -- diabetes, liver and kidney diseases, hypertension, and cardiac issues -- are interconnected.” He further said the company’s strategy would be to bring the latest launches in Denmark and the US soon to India.
As for the oral long-acting GLP-1 analogue obesity drug that is intended for once-daily treatment, Novo Nordisk is witnessing huge demand globally, Shrotriya said. “We are working on creating higher capacities. Talks are on with our current partner Torrent Pharmaceuticals in India as we are looking to double our capacities here,” he said.
Though Shrotriya did not comment on investment, according to industry estimates, setting up an insulin or biologics manufacturing plant takes around Rs. 300 crore as investment.
Both for Icodec and the obesity drug, Indian patients are part of the global trials. “India is part of every clinical trial done by Novo Nordisk. In fact, at this point, around 36 clinical trials are ongoing here across 300 clinical trial sites,” he said. Around 150 people are working on clinical trials in India, and on top of this, there is also a team of over 700 people who work in medical writing, data analytics, regulatory writing, etc, for India and also global trials. Shrotriya claimed that India now accounts for 8 per cent of Novo Nordisk’s global clinical trials.
Of Novo Nordisk’s total strength of 55,000 people, India houses around 4,500.
India’s insulin market is estimated to be around Rs. 3,500-4,000 crore, growing at a 10 per cent CAGR. India’s oral diabetes market is around Rs. 13,000-14,000 crore and is clocking an 11 per cent CAGR.
Novo Nordisk serves around 3-4 million patients in India and makes around 40-50 million vials of insulin here. Torrent Pharmaceutical manufactures insulin for Novo Nordisk in Gujarat from crystals that are imported from Denmark.
India is estimated to have 100 million diabetics, most of whom are either undiagnosed or not on chronic medication. Around a fourth of this population is expected to be on medication.
Around 30 per cent of diabetics are expected to be in need of insulin, thus making India one of the most coveted markets globally for insulin players.
