Sanofi to go after diabetes market

Diabetes

Sanofi-aventis, France's largest pharmaceutical company, is reportedly on track to secure the top spot in the diabetes area, stealing it from current leader, Danish firm Novo Nordisk.

Reports are surfacing which suggest that sanofi has identified diabetes as a top priority in pharmaceuticals and has now established a global division to help the firm achieve its aim of becoming the number one firm in the disease.

The move comes after the firm's best-selling drug for 2009 proved to be Lantus (insulin glargine), with full-year revenues reaching 3.08 billion euros, up 22.5 percent from the year previous. Sales of Apidra (insulin glulisine) were up 38.8 percent to 137 million euros, driven by the launch of Apidra Solostar, a prefilled disposable pen.

Success

Such success has lead the French drug maker to create a global diabetes division integrating "R&D, medical, commercial and device development activities". The plans were unveiled at sanofi's annual results meeting in Paris, where Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher expressed the urgency in focusing on such a massive market, noting that 285 million people worldwide have diabetes.

Ultimately though, analysts believe that the Paris-based firm has a long way to go, given that Novo Nordisk's diabetes sales are about 25 percent higher currently and the fact that the Danish drug maker has just got approval for the much-touted glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue Victoza (liraglutide) in the USA; it has been available in Europe since last summer.

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