Chinese diabetes market worth $2.2 billion, with over 50% accounted for by insulin

Demand within the Chinese insulin market has grown at a fast pace in the past decade. Over the next five years, both production and demand will continue to grow, according to a new report added to the offering of companiesandmarkets.com.

China is the country with the largest number of diabetics. In 2011, the market scale of diabetes medicine in China approximated 13.8 billion renminbi ($2.22 billion), of which, insulin medicines comprising recombinant human insulin and insulin analog accounted for 52.8%.

Insulin is a peptide hormone, produced by beta cells of the pancreas, and is central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, skeletal muscles, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood. In the liver and skeletal muscles, glucose is stored as glycogen, and in adipocytes it is stored as triglycerides.