Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Nov;7(8):452-63.

New and emerging drugs and targets for type 2 diabetes: reviewing the evidence

Brien Rex Miller  1 , Hanh Nguyen  1 , Charles Jia-Haur Hu  1 , Chihyi Lin  1 , Quang T Nguyen  2
Affiliations
Review

New and emerging drugs and targets for type 2 diabetes: reviewing the evidence

Brien Rex Miller et al. Am Health Drug Benefits. 2014 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Diabetes is a deadly and costly disease. The number of adults in the United States with newly diagnosed diabetes has nearly tripled from 1980 to 2011. At the current pace, 1 in 3 US adults will have diabetes in their lifetime. Currently, 14 classes of drugs are available to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus, but only 36% of patients with type 2 diabetes achieve glycemic control with the currently available therapies. Therefore, new treatment options are desperately needed.

Discussion: Despite the availability of many pharmacotherapies, in 2011 an estimated 3.1 million (14.9%) patients with type 2 diabetes still reported not taking medications to treat their diabetes. Patient compliance is a major obstacle facing practicing clinicians on a daily basis. New treatment options are desperately needed, but efficacy and tolerability are no longer the only criteria contributing to the success of a drug. Ease of administration, convenient dosing frequency, being weight control friendly, and having a low risk for hypoglycemia are important factors for the survival of a new drug in the US healthcare system. The present review is focused on important new drugs and drug classes in the pipeline, as well as on recently approved drugs, including sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors, glucagon-like peptide-1 agents, and new insulin therapies, as well as on the technologic improvements in the delivery and dosing frequency of some of the currently available drugs.

Conclusions: In the United States, diabetes can be expected to continue to wreak significant human and financial tolls. The associated complications will continue to climb if they are not controlled and stopped. New therapies for diabetes are clearly needed that will better address these unmet needs. The common threads among the emerging therapies are their convenience of administration and dosing frequency, which are important to the improvement of patient adherence.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National diabetes statistics report: estimates of diabetes and its burden in the United States, 2014. 2014. www.cdc.gov/diabe tes/pubs/statsreport14/national-diabetes-report-web.pdf. Accessed October 3, 2014.
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual number (in thousands) of new cases of diagnosed diabetes among adults aged 18–79 years, United States, 1980–2011. Updated September 24, 2012. www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/incidence/fig1.htm. Accessed September 22, 2014.
    1. Quilliam BJ, Simeone JC, Ozbay AB, Kogut SJ. The incidence and costs of hypoglycemia in type 2 diabetes. Am J Manag Care. 2011; 17: 673–680. - PubMed
    1. Finkelstein EA, Trogdon JG, Cohen JW, Dietz W. Annual medical spending attributable to obesity: payer- and service-specific estimates. Health Aff (Millwood). 2009; 28:w822–w831. - PubMed
    1. Yu AP, Wu EQ, Birnbaum HG, et al. Short-term economic impact of body weight change among patients with type 2 diabetes treated with antidiabetic agents: analysis using claims, laboratory, and medical record data. Curr Med Res Opin. 2007; 23: 2157–2169. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources