Aventis Pharma Ltd (APL), part of the Sanofi-Aventis Group has launched a new prefilled disposable insulin pen in the Indian market.

SoloSTAR is a new, easy-to-use disposable pen for administration of LANTUS. It is to be used for the treatment of hyperglycemia in people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.

LANTUS® SoloSTAR was first launched in Germany. The company claims that the product is the result of over four years of intensive research and development The company has spent extensive resources to gather data about its accuracy. The company has launched an improved version after inputs from patients, nurses and doctors.

More than 246 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes and the number is expected to rise to 380 million in the next 20 years.

India, with a projected 41 million patients, is the ‘diabetes capital’ of the world but only 36 per cent of them (14.8 million) have been diagnosed so far.

Sanofi-Aventis, the developer, manufacturer and marketer of LANTUS SoloSTAR is currently building significant manufacturing capability to support worldwide launches.