Pioglitazone causes the dark market pattern of diabetes

Business agency August 18 reported last week that on the 4th of this month, FDA updated the pharmacological label of pioglitazone, which suggests that the use of pioglitazone for more than one year may increase the risk of bladder cancer. This information triggered many concerns. As of Tuesday, the FDA did not update the relevant information. The SFDA also had no further news. Pioglitazone tablets (Ixote) were still prohibited from selling in France and Germany.

According to the Associated Press, since the beginning of this month, thousands of patients in the United States have filed suit against Takeda Pharmaceutical, the manufacturer of the company. Recalling the previous similar experience of rosiglitazone, pioglitazone may also follow suit and be restricted from clinical use or even eventually withdraw from the market. However, if pioglitazone, one of the most popular celebrity drugs in recent years, is really delisted, the market for sugar-reducing drugs has always been reshuffled. Then, who can replace it with time?

Oral hypoglycemic agents represented by pioglitazone and rosiglitazone represented by type TZD are mainly targeted at patients with type 2 diabetes, and similar efficacy on the market is glimepiride (amoli) and acarbo. Sugar (Beisuping) and repaglinide (Nuohelong) and other products, but currently the market for these three drugs, especially the high-end market, is still more concentrated in Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer, and Novo Nordisk. In the hands of these three multinational pharmaceutical companies, domestic companies such as Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical, Huadong Pharmaceutical and Jiangsu Wanbang are all imitation production, basically only occupy the low-end market.

In addition to chemical drugs, Chinese medicine also has a place in the oral hypoglycaemic drug market. It is also mainly targeted at type 2 diabetes because it is relatively inexpensive and mild, and it is also used by some hospitals and patients. Taking Xiaoke Pill as an example, it is the only combination of Chinese and Western medicines for the treatment of diabetes and entered the first batch of national essential medicines. If pioglitazone is delisted, it is believed that the sales volume of these proprietary Chinese medicines will increase accordingly.