Industry & Economy
-
Health
Torrent starts diabetes division
Our Bureau
Ahmedabad
,
Feb. 23
TORRENT Pharmaceuticals Ltd has set up a new division to cater to diabetes, one of its main revenue spinners.
Named `AzuCa', meaning sugar in Spanish, the new super specialty diabetology division will become operational by April and is part of Torrent's strategy of sharpening focus on diabetes mellitus.
The new division will have a sales force of about 300 executives and will service nearly 25,000 doctors across the country.
"Diabetes is becoming an area of prime focus for Torrent Pharma. Currently we own 2 per cent of the oral hypoglycaemic agents (OHA or diabetes drug) market, which is valued at Rs 780 crore. With AzuCa, we hope to increase our market share to 15-20 per cent in the OHA segment within three years," according to Mr Sujesh Vasudevan, Vice-President Marketing, Torrent Pharma. Of the seven research projects currently in the pipeline at Torrent Pharma, three are focused on diabetes.
These include a patented advanced glycosylation end-products (AGE) breaker compound, which has a great potential for the treatment of diabetes-related vascular and cardiac complications.
The company is also working on DPP-IV inhibitors (a new class of anti-diabetic drugs), which is in the pre-clinical stage and will enter phase one trials soon.
The third diabetes-related project is another novel approach to anti-diabetic therapy and is in the lead identification stage, Mr Vasudevan said.
India has an estimated 3.5 crore diabetics, which is likely to increase to four crore by 2010 and 7.4 crore by 2025. The incidence of diabetics in urban areas has increased 20 times in the last two decades, he said.
More Stories on :
Health |
Pharmaceuticals
Article
E-Mail
::
Comment
::
Syndication
::
Printer Friendly Page
|
