New Pharmacotherapeutic Approaches for Diabetes

摘要

Diabetes mellitus is a disease characterized by chronic hyper- glycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both.1 An alarming 7% of Americans, or approximately 21 million individuals, have diabetes; of these individuals, 90% to 95% are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts a 165% increase in the incidence of Americans with diabetes between 2000 and 2050.2 The direct and indirect medical costs related to diabetes reached dollar132 billion in 2002.3 Numerous updates in diabetes care have taken place. Recently, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) collaborated to produce a guideline for initiating therapy in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes.4 Since the turn of the century, 5 new insulin products, including inhaled insulin, have been approved by the FDA (Table 1). Furthermore, added to the list of available diabetes treatments are 3 notable medications: exenatide (Byetta), pramlintide acetate (Symlin), and sitagliptin (Januvia), all with new mechanisms of action.