Sixty Years of Drug Discovery for Type 2 Diabetes: Where Are We Now?

The control of blood glucose is a dynamic interplay involving several complex systems. In diabetes these systems are perturbed, resulting in a disease continuum of progressive decline over many years. Today, excluding insulin, there are eight classes of anti-diabetic agent which have taken over 60 years to add to the pharmacy chest. In this review I have examined each of these classes with some bias towards drug discovery thinking. Based on history, future science here will be strong, progressive and innovative; the huge test for industry is their response to enormous challenges besetting drug discovery and successfully turn the drug discovery praxis into affordable, effective and safe medicines