This Web page brings together in one place descriptions of and links to those Web pages of companies marketing medications for blood glucose control and certain complications of diabetes. In some cases, where company information is particularly sparse, it is augmented by information on other Web sites. This page is also linked to the 15 other On-line Diabetes Resources pages dealing with other Web pages, other parts of the Internet, and other on-line services. Those links that I think are especially valuable are marked in red.

Two companies dominate the worldwide insulin market. In 1999 Eli Lilly had 48 percent of the worldwide market in volume terms and Novo Nordisk had 44 percent, according to IMS Health, the leading market research firm tracking the global pharmaceutical industry. A distant third was Hoechst, which has since merged with Rhône-Poulenc to form Aventis, with 5.5 percent.

Research and Markets Ltd valued the world market for human insulin at $4.5 billion in 2002. Europe accounted for 40 percent of the market and the U.S. for 33 percent. They expect the world market to reach $7.9 billion by 2007.

World-wide insulin sales reached $4.7 billion in 2003, according to analysts from SG Cowen Securities Corporation, a U.S. securities and investment banking firm focused on the emerging growth sectors of health care and other markets. They reported this at a March 2004 investment conference in Boston last week, according to Kelly Close in Diabetes Close Up, V3, #6 March 17, 2004. Her website is http://www.closeconcerns.com.

In the U.S. Lilly had an 86 percent share of the retail pharmacy market in 1999 compared to Novo's 14 percent. But Lilly's share drops to 78 percent when you factor in insulin use in hospitals and elsewhere where prescriptions aren't required. Only these two companies manufactured insulin sold in the United States in 1999, although Aventis subsequently took the market by storm with its introduction of very long-acting Lantus insulin.

In the United Kingdom there is a relatively minor insulin manufacturer, CP Pharmaceuticals, which Wockhardt Ltd. recently purchased. This company also exports its insulins, including porcine and bovine insulin, to people in the United States on a personal use basis. The URL is http://www.cppharma.co.uk/

Brasil is another country with its own source of insulin, Biobrás. Insulin was formerly manufactured in India by Boots Pharmaceuticals, which Knoll Pharmaceuticals Ltd. purchased in 1995. But Knoll apparently no longer manufactures insulin.

In Argentina, Laboratorios Beta manufactures Betasint, bovine and porcine insulin and Betalin, human insulin.

India now also has two or more companies that manufactures insulin there. Wockhardt Limited produces recombinant human insulin. The Indian press reports that Shreya Life Sciences Pvt Ltd in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has launched recombinant human insulin under the brand name Recosulin. Further, in August 2004 Biocon's recombinant human insulin was expected to be on the market in three months.

Diosynth, an Akzo Nobel business unit, is a leading manufacturer of insulin, but does not sell it to consumers.

Two companies in Poland, Polfa Tarchomin and Bioton, manufacture human insulin, according to The Warsaw Business Journal.

The first joint Russian-Chinese enterprise for producing insulin analogs will open in Penza, Russia. It will produce 12 million insulin vials a year, providing one-third of Russia's demand. The plant will also produce insulin pens. The URL is
http://en.rian.ru/society/20050623/40751061.html

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