Actavis launches Repaglinide tablets for diabetes

Actavis has announced the commercial availability of Repaglinide tablets, its new generic treatment for type 2 diabetes.

Debuting in the UK, Sweden, Hungary and Germany, the product has been developed by Actavis Malta as an off-label equivalent of the Novo Nordisk treatment NovoNorm/Prandin.

This drug is regarded as one of the most important oral anti-diabetics and recently lost its patent protection, with sales of the Novo Nordisk version generating 366.7 million euros (323.2 million pounds) in 2010.

Actavis will follow this initial launch by introducing the product to Italy and France later this month.

Lars Ramneborn, executive vice-president of European sales at Actavis, said: "We continue to intensify our focus on this therapeutic area and this product launch represents an important milestone in the development of our diabetes franchise."

This comes in the same month that the company launched Levofloxacin tablets, a generic version of Daiichi Sankyo's infection treatment Levaquin/Tavanic.