Wockhardt Ltd, which announced its launch of human insulin in the country in August this year, will be commencing commercial production only by the end of this year. According to company sources, its new fermentation plant coming up at the Biotechnology Park in Aurangabad will be commissioned by December.

The company launched the product with much fanfare in the local market, is reportedly producing the recombinant DNA insulin in its R&D oriented pilot plant for the current market requirement. However, the company is yet to reveal the production capacity in the pilot plant and even in the proposed commercial facility.

The company while launching the product had claimed that its target is to have a major chunk of the local market, which is pegged at Rs 173 core currently, along with a significant entry into the export market. Though the company sources said that Wosulin, the indigenous rDNA human insulin of Wockhardt, has been well accepted in the local market over the first three months of the launch, they declined to quantify the market share both in value and volume.

According to the retail audit of AC Nielson ORG MARG, the human insulin market in India currently shared by mainly three multinational companies such as Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Aventis Pharma. The market shares of these companies are 69 per cent, 24 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. The only Indian company, which has a share in the local market as per the ORG MARG audit, is USV Limited. USV, which is importing the human insulin, has another 3 per cent market share in India.

According to Manish Gupta, senior manager, Business Development, Wockhardt Limited, the product has been well received in the market in terms of quality and price. Although the multinational companies in India had cut prices of insulin by 35-40 per cent in January and the current price ranges from Rs. 145-262 per unit, Wockhardt offered its product, Wosulin, at Rs. 129 per unit.

Gupta confirmed that "with the discounted price we expect a major share in the local market, and the production capacity will never be a constraint at any point of time to cater to the market requirement." At the same time, he said, the production capacity cannot be revealed, as it is strictly confidential.

However, the industry sources said that though the company is confident about the market growth even without an adequate production capacity at present, it may be hopeful of outsourcing the product according to the market requirement. But since Wockhardt is reportedly the only indigenous manufacturer at present, the product cannot be outsourced from an approved facility within the country, the sources pointed out.