Domestic Production For China’s Growing Insulin Demand

Hong Kong (I-Newswire) February 11, 2011 - In 2009 China’s Insulin market reached 5.3 billion Yuan, which still accounted for less than 6% of the global market. With the world’s fastest growing diabetes population, and less than 30% of those patients currently receiving treatment, there is huge potential for domestic Insulin production.

In 2010, over 90% of China’s Insulin was supplied by international giants, Novo Hordisk (NYSE:NVO), Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) and Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY). Chinas largest domestic producer Tonghua Dongbao (SHA:600867) had less than 4% market share. Based on the potential of the Insulin market in China, other companies are taking note, and competition will be fierce.

Zhuhai United Laboratories, a subsidiary of Hong Kong based United Laboratories, announced in January that it will invest 1 billion Yuan in developing their domestic insulin market. Pretium Ventures analyst Charles Shin believes that this is an area worth watching. “Novo Nordisk’s stock has nearly doubled in the last year. They are a dominant force in the insulin market, but as companies like United Laboratories develop cost effective competition, China will transition to local supply.”

China currently has more than 90 million diabetics, and that statistic is probably quite low due to the number of undiagnosed cases. With a rapidly changing diet and lifestyle, many more Chinese are becoming susceptible to diabetes, and experts believe that diagnoses could increase significantly in the coming years. The Chinese Insulin market was valued at 5 billion Yuan in 2010, and will likely double over the next 5-10 years.

Chinese based United Laboratories plans to occupy 10% of that market in 2-3 years, and believes that due to optimization in technology, they will be able to deliver less expensive Insulin than their competition. That predicted 10-15% savings over alternatives could be enough to thrust the company into stardom.

About Pretium Ventures:
Pretium Ventures is a Hong Kong based investment firm that specializes in promoting successful growth of young companies. As a venture Capital firm Pretium Ventures is unique in their client centric approach to supporting the growth of businesses as well as their ability to cater to small to medium sized individual and institutional investors.

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