Biocon Wants 1 In 5 Insulin Users Worldwide On Its Products And A Market In Transition Is Helping

Last Updated:April 08, 2026, 14:21 IST

As big insulin makers pivot to GLP-1 blockbusters and exit the space, Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw sees a rare opening to become the world's dominant insulin company

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has a number in her head: one in five. That is the share of global insulin users she wants to use a Biocon product—an aspiration the biotech billionaire shared during a media interaction in Bengaluru this week, which she acknowledged could take two years, five years, or perhaps sooner.

“We are hoping to become the insulin company of the world," Shaw, the executive chairperson of Biocon, said.

The timing, she argued, could hardly be better. “The big insulin companies do not want to make insulin in cartridges or pens anymore. They are switching to vials because they want to focus on the GLP-1 opportunity."

The global insulin landscape is undergoing a quiet but consequential upheaval. Legacy pharmaceutical giants, long the dominant force in diabetes care, are redirecting capital and manufacturing capacity toward GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide and liraglutide, which have surged in demand as obesity treatments. In doing so, they are stepping back from the lower-margin, operationally intensive business of insulin production, particularly in pen devices and cartridge formats. “The majority of players in this space are looking to exit," Shaw said during a media interaction in Bengaluru on Monday.

Biocon currently holds regulatory approvals in 80 markets, though Shaw said the company cannot yet fully size the addressable opportunity across all of them. Its immediate commercial focus is the United States, the European Union, and 20 high-priority emerging markets.

What has repositioned Biocon for this moment, Shaw said, is biosimilars. The segment now accounts for 65 per cent of the company’s revenue, driven by complex biological products that require deep manufacturing expertise and are difficult for generic competitors to replicate. Generics contribute around 20 per cent of revenue, though Shaw was candid about the pressures there. “It is a crowded and competitive market," she said. The remaining comes from research services.

“Over 60 per cent of diseases are now non-communicable. Global diabetes cases are projected to grow by 45 per cent to reach 800 million in the coming decades," Shreehas Tambe, the new managing director and chief executive of Biocon, said. “Three major areas involving spending in healthcare are diabetes, oncology and immunology, and we are present in all these three areas."

Shaw also noted that healthcare spending globally is converging on these three areas. But insulin, she stressed, remains irreplaceable in a way that GLP-1 drugs are not. Type-1 diabetics and patients in the late stages of Type-2 diabetes cannot rely on the newer therapies. “Insulin is indispensable," she said.

GLP1 Push, But Insulin Economics Matter

Biocon is not ignoring GLP-1s, it is building in that direction too. Liraglutide has launched in Europe, supporting generics segment growth, with further expansion planned for the United States. Semaglutide filings are underway in multiple international markets. But the company’s approach to allocating capacity between insulin and GLP-1 production is deliberately margin-driven, complicated by the fact that both therapies share manufacturing infrastructure.

“Injectable therapies such as insulin and GLP-1 rely on shared infrastructure—particularly pen devices and sterile fill-finish lines—which remain capacity-constrained," Shaw explained. The resource allocation question is live. “We will have to look at pricing and see if insulins have better margins than GLP-1s, and then we will focus more on insulin manufacturing. If insulin is giving us a margin more than GLP-1 in certain markets, or vice versa, we need to calibrate it carefully."

Biocon Biologics also operates Asia’s largest integrated insulin manufacturing facility in Johor, Malaysia. To underpin the ambition of becoming the world’s dominant insulin supplier, Biocon is expanding its manufacturing footprint. Tambe described a multi-pronged approach: partnerships with companies in the United States, a network of fill-and-finish capacity alliances, manufacturing partnerships, and fully integrated facilities. “Apart from strategic alliances, we have got the right set of people to do it," Shaw added.

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