Lilly and Boehringer closing in on diabetes market lead with Jardiance approval

With the recent approval of Jardiance (empagliflozin) in the USA, Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and its partner, German family-owned pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), have taken another step towards owning the most comprehensive diabetes portfolio in the industry, a new study suggests.

Research and consulting firm GlobalData says that, while Jardiance is the third-to-market sodium-glucose transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor, GlobalData expects it to be competitive in a market set to more than double in value over the next 10 years, driven primarily by the dramatic increase in disease prevalence.

Valentina Gburcik, GlobalData’s senior analyst covering cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, asserts: “Although the type 2 diabetes drug classes are currently crowded with ‘me-too’ drugs, Eli Lilly and BI have already proved themselves experts at successfully marketing such treatments. This has been demonstrated by Tradjenta [linagliptin], which continues to perform strongly. Despite its third-to-market status, Tradjenta is still stealing patient share from Merck & Co’s Januvia [sitagliptin], the first-to-market drug from the same class.”