India's largest pharmaceutical company Cipla Ltd has stepped out of its plans of entering the recombinant human insulin segment. The shrinking margins from insulin marketed in the country is cited to be the main reason behind the move.

In future, human insulin is likely to be commoditised with more players entering the segment. Human insulin prices during the last one-year has fallen by about 40 per cent, said industry analysts.

"We had plans of entering the human insulin market in the country. However, drastic price reduction of domestic insulin over the last few years has led towards shelving the plan," said Amar Lulla, managing director, Cipla.

It is learnt that Cipla Ltd were in negotiations with Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, a Chinese company, for the import of bulk DNA materials required in the manufacture of human insulin at its manufacturing facility in Goa.

The imported bulk DNA material from Dongbao was supposed to be formulated into insulin at Cipla's facility. Dongbao, a listed company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is the only producer of human insulin in China.

Cipla has spent about Rs 50 crore in setting up its biogenerics facilities. The facilities have come up in the same location, where the company set up a new Rs 100-crore manufacturing complex during 2001.

Recombinant human insulin prices have come down to about Rs 100 per 10 ml from Rs 230.

There are more than 25 marketers of human insulin in the country, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Aventis Pharma, Wockhardt, Torrent, Sarabhai, USV, and Sun Pharma are the major among them.