New Report Predicts Major Changes in Latin American Market for Diabetes
By Liisa Vexler
According to a new report published by Frost & Sullivan, the Latin American market for diabetes medication will undergo major changes over the next three years. The transformation will be prompted by the launch of several new therapies, including three slow-release insulins and four treatments that do not involve insulin.
One of the new products to be introduced to the Latin American market is a single-dose tablet that will reduce the number of pills that need to be taken each day by patients suffering from type 2 diabetes with metabolic syndrome. At the moment, these patients need to take separate medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, and hyperlipidemia, so pharmaceutical companies are developing treatments that can lengthen the time between administrations.
Latin America is experiencing an increase in the prevalence of diabetes, meaning that the market for diabetes therapeutics is also increasing. According to Frost & Sullivan's report "Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges for the Latin American Diabetes Therapeutics Market," the market can be expected to grow steadily for the next five years, partly due to increased awareness of the need for early diagnosis and treatment.
However, in Latin America, the public health system foots the cost for most diabetic treatments and is therefore promoting the use of locally made generic products. These are mostly insulins obtained from animal or human sources rather than analog insulins. Analyst Lucila Rocca from Frost & Sullivan stated that "pharmaceutical companies need to formulate an appropriate pricing strategy and educate society on the therapeutic and administration benefits of analog insulins over human or animal products to boost the sale volumes of analog insulins in the public segment."
In spite of these innovations in diabetes therapy, research continues on treatments that can improve the function of beta-cells and thus prevent or delay progression of the disease. Prophylactic therapy is also high on the research agenda because the prediabetic population is generally much larger than the diabetic population. In Latin America, it is triple the size.