Pharma companies race to launch type 2 diabetes drugs

KUALA LUMPUR – The global pre-diabetes population is three times the size of the current diabetes patient population. A tremendous increase in the pandemic’s prevalence is in store, and the industry is in dire need of better tools to prevent disease progression. Identifying the precursors to fully developed diabetes through prophylactic therapy is vital, as an unexplored market segment driven by an ever-growing customer base.  Meeting patients’ needs through the inclusive therapeutics approach allows practitioners to prevent and manage disease progression. This is crucial in the shift to prevention over treatment in the healthcare market and aligns with the new paradigm of physician quality over quantity.     

According to Frost & Sullivan’s Competitive Intelligence research, Analysis of the Global Type 2 Diabetes Therapeutics Market, 15 new drugs for type 2 diabetes are in late-stage development (Phase 3 and preregistration). The analysis outlines opportunities in the market and the industry’s future through an international evaluation of current drugs and those in the pipeline. 
“The type 2 diabetes market continually advances, primarily due to the dominance of obesity,” said Frost & Sullivan Life Sciences Global Program Director Jennifer Lazar Brice. “Current studies of this increasingly competitive market are limited in their approach.  Seeing this missed opportunity, we began addressing such markets in a new way. Our repositioned Life Sciences program includes therapeutic product and pipeline analyses and services focused on our clients’ proactive competitive intelligence goals. Among the many trends we see coming, the pharma industry will address the ubiquity of diabetes by a steady stream of new product launches over the next six years.” 
New diabetes treatment options meet many unmet patient needs. Subsequently, payers and regulatory authorities raise the bar for approval and reimbursement even higher, and the risk of regulatory or commercial failure then increases. Therefore, in a crowded market, new participants must demonstrate a spotless safety profile, along with superior disease control to ensure a competitive position.  This is particularly important in the U.S., where the diabetes patient population continues to expand, as is the case in several other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, China, South Korea and India. The total health expenditures globally allocated to diabetes are eventually more than these regions can afford, as we see inefficient healthcare budgets addressed by expansive measures such as the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. 
“Physicians desperately need patient-friendly tools that enable aggressive yet safe management of the disease to prevent complications that are costly to both the patients’ quality of life and the healthcare system,” said Frost & Sullivan Life Sciences senior industry analyst Debbie Toscano. “Due to the evolutionary nature of diabetes, many patients must progress through continuously altered regimens to maintain control of their disease. Therefore, therapies that preserve or restore beta cell function, postpone or prevent disease progression, and allow patients to remain on a single therapy will be the game-changers in the years ahead, based on what the market demands and needs today.”