New plant positions Lilly for changing insulin market
pharmafile | November 6, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Boehringer, insulin, lillyÂ
Eli Lilly has unveiled plans for a $140 million expansion of its insulin plant in Indianapolis as it starts to tackle life in a tougher, more competitive diabetes market.
Construction of the new manufacturing capacity will begin immediately, said Lilly, with the 80,000 sq. ft. unit expected to be completed in March 2014 and representing “one of the most significant investments in Lilly’s US-based manufacturing operations in the past decade”.
The new unit and upgrades to other plants in its manufacturing network will allow Lilly to reduce the cost of producing its insulin products, whilst also hiking up capacity as the number of people developing diabetes continues to rise around the world.
The announcement comes as Lilly reported lower shares of the US insulin market in the first half of the year – coupled with downward pressure on pricing from payers – and also started to see a slowdown in overseas insulin sales.
One factor has been increased take-up of oral drugs in the DPP-4 inhibitor class such as Merck & Co’s Januvia (sitagliptin) – as well as injectable GLP-1 analogues like Amylin’s Bydureon (exenatide) – that have led to type II diabetes patients delaying the start of insulin therapy.
The technical complexity of manufacturing insulin has made the market resistant to competition, but this is starting to change. Genericisation is starting to occur with lower-cost insulins from the likes of Biocon and Wockhardt starting to compete on the global stage with the established insulin players (Lilly, Novo and Sanofi).
And while this competition is currently largely for traditional mealtime insulins, some of the longer-acting insulin analogues – including Lilly’s big-selling Humalog (insulin lispro) brand – are facing patent expiry in the next few years.
With the new plant, Lilly will be able to produce cartridges, insulin and injection devices at a single location, boosting the efficiency of the process. Lilly currently only makes insulin cartridges in France and Italy.
The new Indianapolis unit will focus on the production of pre-filled insulin cartridges – one of the fastest-growing insulin product categories – and is expected to employ more than 100 full-time technicians, scientists and engineers when fully operational in 2015. During the construction phase around 250 to 350 workers will be employed at the site.
The plant will also help Lilly produce the new insulin products in its development pipeline, notably novel basal insulin analogue LY2605541 which is being developed with Boehringer Ingelheim and has reached Phase III trials.
Phil Taylor
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