Surging Profits In Asian Diabetes Drugs

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is hoping for dramatically increased sales and profits in Asia.

The increasing demand in China for diabetes drugs is fueling a significant portion of this growth. Specifically, Eli Lilly anticipates that revenues in China will grow 500% by the year 2015, to nearly $1 billion.

The company hopes the growth in sales of its drugs in Asia will help mitigate the anticipated losses in sales of drugs that will lose their U.S. patent protection over the next several years.

Additionally, according to Lorenzo Tallarigo, president of international operations, Eli Lilly is also considering to outsource their Asian manufacturing in India.

“No doubt India has great capability when it comes to manufacturing,” Tallarigo said. “We don’t have anything concrete to discuss but that is definitely something we’re going to look at.”

Asian Diabetes Drug Tests

Pharmaceutical companies are now looking to test their upcoming blockbuster drugs in Asia. According to drug industry experts, this will shorten the time it takes for new pharmaceutical drugs to be available for sale in the U.S. market.

Because of dramatically lower costs in Asia, and because there are much larger populations there, drug manufacturers can speed up the whole drug-approval process. A report by AT Kearney, a management consulting firm, suggests that clinical trials in China can cost half of what a trial would cost in the United States.

According to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development in Boston, the number of pharmaceutical companies that conduct clinical trials overseas increased to almost 1,800 last year, up from 956 in 1997.

Also, 86% of clinical trials were done in U.S. in 1997; that figure has now dropped to 57%… and 30% of total clinical trials are now performed in countries other than Europe and the U.S.

Additionally, the FDA is looking to increase the number of drugs it approves. Among potential blockbuster drugs to receive approval next year is the diabetes drug Galvus, manufactured by Novartis.

However, despite the potential savings, many industry experts worry that these new cost-saving measures could put U.S. consumers at increased health risks.

“There is concern among physicians over whether the clinical data gathered overseas can be generalized to patients in the U.S.” says Ken Getz, a research fellow at the Tufts Center for Drug Development.

“There will be greater discussion about whether a guideline should be created that restricts the proportion of patients abroad tested for drugs that will be introduced on the U.S. market.”

Asian Diabetes Statistics

The United Nations estimates the number of people globally affected by diabetes to be 246 million… and approximately half of those are in India, China, Nepal and other Asian countries.

Globally, Diabetes is ranked as the fourth leading cause of death, in terms of disease. Each year, an estimated 3.8 million people die from diabetes-related causes, such as:
cardiovascular disease (heart disease),
stroke (atherosclerosis),
diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease),
diabetic neuropathy (nerve disease),
diabetic eye disease (retinopathy and macular oedema),
among many others.

The Nepal Diabetes Association (NDA) reports that among people aged 20 years and older living in urban areas, 15% are affected by this disease. Among people aged 40 years and older in urban areas, this number climbed to 19%.

One of the major causes of diabetes cited among the urban people was lack of needed physical activity.

However, the NDA also discovered that diabetes is a far less serious health problem in rural areas, where only 2% of the people aged 20 years and older were reportedly affected by diabetes.

Asian Diabetes Association Observes World Diabetes Day

Today is the United Nations World Diabetes Day (UN WDD).

According to the official World Diabetes Day (WDD) website,

“Diabetes is a chronic, potentially debilitating and often fatal disease. The disease occurs as a result of problems with the production and supply of insulin in the body. Either the body produces no or insufficient insulin or the body cannot use the insulin it produces effectively.”

The truth is, diabetes is chronic only if the underlying cause of the disease remains unresolved.

Unfortunately, “modern” medicine never seems to address these underlying causes.

Instead, they merely attempt to “control” diabetes by suppressing the symptoms with medication… Yet even though those diabetes symptoms appear to be controlled — and certain indicators such as glucose and insulin levels are artificially kept within “normal” ranges — the disease itself continues to get progressively worse.

That’s why you face an 80% risk of dying from heart disease or stroke (plus a long list of other serious health complications), even if you continue to “control” your diabetes with medications.

On the other hand, if you successfully resolve the underlying probems that caused your diabetes in the first place, then this otherwise deadly disease can be completely reversed (despite any claims to the contrary by the so-called diabetes “experts” — who just happen to have a powerful financial incentive to keep as many diabetics as possible on those expensive diabetes medications.)

Halle Berry Angers Diabetes Experts

Actress Halle Berry, who is pregnant, has enraged diabetes experts, after publicly stating that she has successfully improved her diabetes with a healthy diet.

Diabetes specialists are accusing her of “confusing” other diabetics with her comments.

It appears that these diabetes “experts” believe that if they cannot successfully reverse diabetes, then it must also be impossible for others as well… no matter how much scientific proof is provided.

Just goes to show that most of these “experts” are more intent on proving their preconceived notions, rather than being open to true and unbiased scientific research.

Diabetes Drug Failures

Major manufacturers of diabetes drugs faced major market setbacks as a result of diabetes drugs that were discontinued (Avandia, Actos, Exubera, etc.).

The inhaled insulin product, Exubera, was discontinued in the third quarter of 2007 as a result of lacklustre sales… and Pfizer took a $2.8 billion charge. During the same quarter, GlaxoSmithKline’s sales of Avandia declined 38% because of growing concerns over heart failure risks.

Diabetes and obesity rates just keep climbing at an alarming pace. On November 5, 2007 the United Health Foundation reported that a quarter of the people in the United States is obese, compared with less than half that figure, or 11.6% in 1990.

And according to Medco Health Solutions, a benefit management company, diabetes drugs were one of the biggest drivers of health-care costs in 2006, as overall diabetes treatments increased 5.1%. From 2001 to 2006 the number of people with Type II diabetes climbed 16.9%.

The oral diabetes treatment market is currently at $5 billion annually.

Cure For Diabetes “Miracle”

The Asian Diabetes Association has revealed research about a natural product that has been used in China for many years to treat Type II Diabetes: the Goji berry. Its polysaccharides have been shown to help balance blood sugar and insulin response.

In his first clinical trials, Dr. Victor Marcial-Vega, M.D., researcher on the effects of goji juice for years, discovered that “blood sugar levels decrease in 64 percent of the patients with diabetes, and more than half of them decreased or eliminated their medications.”

Here’s one testimonial:


I was taking 14 medications, and never anticipated the quality of my life improving. My blood sugar numbers were running in the 280s – the lowest would be approximately 250. After the tenth day of drinking goji juice, my blood sugar was 118, and that was not in a fasting environment, and was without any of the 14 medications that I would normally be taking. I’m a goji-for-life person. I can’t imagine taking it out of my daily routine.
- Max V., Queen Creek, Arizona
(Breakthroughs In Health, August 2006, Vol. 1, issue 1, p. 127)

According to medical research, goji causes the red blood cells to release oxygen to the cells more efficiently via an enzyme called 23BPG. This tends to make better use of the available oxygen.

Dr. Victor Marcial-Vega, M.D. has been studying the before- and after-effects of various treatments on the blood, with thousands of his patients.

He discovered that when the blood is too acidic, the red blood cells tend to clump together, and there is normally a higher level of bacteria in the blood as well.

Dr. Marcial-Vega discovered that in only 24 to 36 hours after drinking Goji juice, the blood became more alkaline, and the red blood cells had separated, making oxygen delivery to the cells more efficient. Some of his research was published in the August 2006 issue of Breakthroughs In Health magazine (vol. 1, issue 1), as follows:

He noticed that as the alkalinity changed, so did the reversal of all illnesses, including cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic renal failure, obesity, high cholesterol, arthritis and other illnesses associated with physical or mental discomforts, including attention deficit disorder, anxiety and depression.

“Blood sugar levels decrease in 64 percent of the patients with diabetes, and more than half of them decreased or eliminated their medications” (p. 13).

The ancient Himalayan healers were also aware thousands of years ago that people were much healthier, stronger, had more endurance, and even lived longer when they consumed goji.

A well-known story is told of Li Qing Yuen, a Chinese man born in 1678, who lived to be 252 years old! His life span has even been verified by scholars, who found that “each day he consumed a ‘soup’ made of the Goji berry.”

And like with most natural products, there are no unpleasant side-effects associated with normal use.

Asian Diabetes: “Prevention” In India

The Indian Diabetes Prevention Programme recently published a study in Diabetes Care, which promotes lifestyle modifications and long-term treatment with metformin, alone or in combination, as cost-effective measures for preventing Type II Diabetes in individuals who are at risk for this disease.

According to Dr. Ambady Ramachandran of the India Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, and his co-investigators, India is facing a diabetes epidemic with around 35 million diabetics suffering from the disease, with approximately 30% of these likely being undiagnosed cases.

Ramachandran and his team studied 531 adults aged 35-55 years with impaired glucose tolerance, and divided them into four groups:
a group that received 250 mg metformin tablets twice a day;
a lifestyle modification group which was directed to exercise every day for a minimum of 30 minutes, plus given dietary instruction;
a group that was given both of the above interventions (metformin and lifestyle modification); and
a control group that was given standard health-care advice.

The study participants were monitored at regular intervals, over a 3-year period.

The study revealed that “Lifestyle modification was the most cost-effective intervention, followed by metformin.”

However, this “prevention” approach merely postponed the onset of diabetes, rather than prevent it, according to Ramachandran.

A far better approach is to simply solve the underlying cause of diabetes, since this has been proven to not merely postpone the disease, but to completely reverse it in over 80% of diabetics.

Unfortunately, such a strategy doesn’t seem to fit the current medical paradigm of “treating” or “controlling” diabetes. Could this be because it’s far more profitable to keep treating the ongoing symptoms of diabetes for the rest of the diabetic’s (dramatically shortened) life?!

“Happy News” About Asian Diabetes Epidemic

The firm Frost & Sullivan (which researches and analyzes new market opportunities for corporate growth), has some “happy news” about the diabetes epidemic: this escalating health crisis is creating a huge demand for glucose meters and strips in Asia.

Isn’t that exciting news… Companies that sell glucose meters and diabetic strips can be “happy” to profit from this serious health epidemic.

A report by Frost & Sullivan announced that sales of meters and strips exceeded $100 million last year in the Asia Pacific region. And the future is even “brighter”, as there is still lots of opportunity for growth… because there are such low levels of patient awareness in developing nations, about the importance of monitoring glucose levels.

I know, I know… Monitoring your blood sugar levels is a good thing if you’re diabetic…

Still, it’s just so incredibly frustrating to see companies so gleefully profiting hundreds of millions of dollars from this diabetes epidemic, instead of educating the public about solving the root problem that causes diabetes in the first place.

But that wouldn’t be “happy news” for Big Pharma’s outrageous profit margins… Forgive me if I sound just a little bit jaded.

Cure for Diabetes Research

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently reported a “major development” in the search for a cure for diabetes.

The research doctors report they have successfully transplanted embryonic pig pancreas into diabetic monkeys, and within weeks the monkeys showed dramatic improvement in insulin production.

Dr. Marc Hammerman of Washington University says, “They are a lot healthier. We’re very close to being able to cure them. So if this is carried forward it is a cure for diabetes, potentially juvenile diabetes and adult onset diabetes. That’s huge.”

Additionally, Dr. Hammerman also says the transplants were done without the need for risky immune suppression drugs that prevent rejection, and that more research on monkeys is needed.

What does this mean for diabetics today?

First of all, human trials are still at least five years away. Full approval would be yet another 4-7 years — or longer — assuming those human trials prove effective and problem-free.

And secondly, most diabetics simply cannot afford to wait that long… especially since about 80% of diabetics can already reverse their diabetes by using far safer, less expensive, and already-proven treatments.

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