Eli Lilly, Boehringer diabetes tango a first of its kind

Two players, competing for spoils in a foreign land, can yet handhold each other to achieve their ends. Competition can await its turn.

The tie-up between the India units of US-based Eli Lilly and German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim to jointly promote each other’s diabetes products sure plays out to that plot, made famous by many a frontier period piece.

Central to the latest alliance is Ingelheim’s oral anti-diabetic product Linagliptin, which is not yet approved for marketing in India, and Lilly’s insulin analog Humalog, which is already available in the market.

The alliance will combine Lilly’s expertise in diabetes and Ingelheim’s innovative late-stage pipeline, Philipp von Lattorff, head, emerging markets, Boehringer Ingelheim said in a statement.

Jacques Tapiero, president, emerging markets, Eli Lilly, said the alliance will expand Lilly’s commercial presence in India.
India spokespersons of Lilly and Ingelheim said their sales teams will promote each other’s products.

“Our product humalog will also be promoted by Ingelheim’s sales force, and vice versa with respect to their product linagliptin,” said the Lilly spokesperson.

Sharad Tyagi, MD, Boehringer Ingelheim India, said 50% of the company’s sales force would be for diabetes.

Lilly India has a diabetes sales force of around 200.

Tyagi said the company wants to be a diabetes powerhouse in India. “Linagliptin is approved in the US and other countries and a similar story would be repeated in India,” he said.

Industry experts see more such deals in future as MNCs try to squeeze into the growing market in India.

“Such alliances are ways of balancing out in the huge India market. They want to compete with one another. But at the same time use each others strengths to stabilize themselves here,” said a healthcare consultant.

Estimates by McKinsey &Co predict the pharma market in India will grow to $55 billion by 2020 from $12.6 billion in 2009.