Eli Lilly and Company Korea said Tuesday that its diabetes treatment Trulicity (ingredient: dulaglutide) recorded sales of more than 12 billion won ($11.1 million) last year, becoming a blockbuster therapy in one year and six months of its launch.

“The fact that Trulicity has become a blockbuster drug in just one and a half years after launch is all the more meaningful because it proves that Lilly has provided a solution that meets the needs of people with diabetes,” said Cho Eun-young, marketing director of Eli Lilly and Company Korea.

Trulicity

Prescription sales of Trulicity grew more than 12 times since it marked 1 billion won in sales in 2015 to 12 billion won last year, the company said, noting that Trulicity took up 19 percent or almost one-fifth of the entire diabetes injection therapy market. The company said it expects to make headway in the insulin-centered diabetes injection therapy market as well.

“One of the main reasons for the growth of Trulicity is lowered barriers to injection therapies for diabetes treatment. Trulicity is a once-weekly injectable long-acting GLP-1 analog that proved the hypoglycemic effect and safety as a single or combination therapy for type 2 diabetic patients in each step of treatment,” Lilly Korea said in a statement.

The company noted that the Korean Diabetes Association also recommended last year the GLP-1 analog be used alone or in combination with oral medication or basal insulin in its 2017 guidelines. Analyst firm Evaluate Pharma estimated Trulicity would become the second highest sales in the market for diabetic medicines by 2022.

The GLP-1 analog first gained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September 2014 and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s approval in May 2015.

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