Diabetes mellitus has appeared to be one of the main public health challenges to high, middle, and low-income economies. In 2019 DM care market reached 69.7 billion and likely to increase by 4.5% by 2025.
Assessing the situation in global setting, North America and Asia-Pacific region are the two-region accounted for major market share for the DM care products. Two main countries in Asia-Pacific region i.e. China and India are observed an increasing demand for diabetes drugs. The number of diabetic patients in China has passed 110 million and the nation with highest number of diabetic patients.
Addressing the situation in Pakistani setting which is in the neighbors of China and being the partner of the one road one belt initiative there is an opportunity for a Sino-Pak consortium to tackle the growing burden of DM in the region. Over the duration of one year, as reported by International Diabetic Foundation (IDF) Pakistan is among top 10 countries with rising incidence of DM with the propagation rate of 148.0%.
By 2025 China and Pakistan approximately have 150.0 million patients suffering from DM and there will be a massive demand in these two nations for the supply of DM medication, devices and care related products. In Pakistani setting, there are various challenge to come in the view of growing DM burden. One of the main challenges is the lack of the research and development in the national pharmaceutical setup which limits Pakistan potential to develop any new active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Moreover, there is lack of any basic manufacturing facilities where active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are manufactured. Now more than 90.0% of the APIs are imported by the national and multinational pharmaceutical companies for the manufacturing of the diabetes related medicine.
Various Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies i.e. Hengrui Medicine, Luye Pharma, Xuanzhu Pharma, Eston Biopharmaceuticals, Salubris Pharmaceuticals, Baolijian, Gmax Biopharm, CS Bio, Hansoh Pharma, Betta Pharmaceuticals, Eastern Biotech, Hansoh Pharma have a huge range of oral hypoglycemic regimens that are in different phases of clinical trial testing. Drug regulatory authority of Pakistan can assist the Pakistani national pharmaceutical firms to establish collaboration of a joint research and development, and clinical evidence generation for these products in Pakistani setting by supporting clinical trials and evidence generation studies.
In this way over the time there will be availability of these product in Pakistan and under the Sino-Pak consortium there may be a possibility to of manufacturing of the active pharmaceutical ingredients within Pakistan. This will assist in creating a balance in the diabetic care products market which is hugely dominated by the Swiss and European pharmaceutical firms.
In additional to the pharmaceuticals, China held the largest share in the diabetes care devices (BRIC) market in 2019. Diabetes care devices mainly include diagnostic and measure devices along with the supportive equipment’s / kits and mobile application.
This strength of the Chinese stakeholders leading the BRIC market is a potential opportunity for the Pakistan national manufacturers to develop a mutual liaison for technology transfer and collaborative production which will in long run assist in meeting the national needs of the rising diabetic population and also assist in development and progression of the national pharmaceutical sector.
The writer is the acting Chair for the institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Veterinary and animal sciences
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