There’s a new diabetes drug in the market which apparently cuts cost by 80%. We kid you not. This comes as good news for millions of diabetics tackling the debilitating disease.
By lowering the cost of therapy for patients by 80%, the new drug in the ‘gliptin’ family has disrupted the anti-diabetes market. With 15 companies offering offering the drugs, cost for a day’s treatment is down from Rs 45 to an average daily price of Rs 9. This miracle drug could make life easier for the people tackling with the disease which gradually attacks and weakens all body organs.
The cost of gliptin treatment amounted to Rs 16,200 per year (at Rs 1,350 per month). With the entry of the new molecule and subsequently aggressive pricing by domestic companies over the past six months, the cost of therapy has dropped to approximately Rs 3,285 a year (at Rs 270 a month), translating into national savings of roughly Rs 1,300 crore for patients. The new entrant teneligliptin is also the fastest selling in the Rs 1,430 crore gliptin family which occupies 20% of the total anti-diabetic market, reports the Times Of India.
Anoop Misra, chairman Fortis-C-DOC Hospital for Diabetes told The Times Of India, “Low cost medications are surely needed in India, however, all of us look at safety data before prescribing any medication. For teneligliptin, safety data is not long term, and confined to patients from far eastern countries, hence confidence to prescribe this medication viz-a-viz other gliptins is lower.”
The new entrant teneligliptin is also the fastest selling in the 1,430 crore gliptin family, which occupies 20% of the anti-diabetic market, reported The Economic Times.
(All images courtesy Reuters)