An Overview on Anti Diabetic Drugs and Development

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is one of the world’s major diseases and is the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer. In the India, about 2–6% population suffer from diabetes or related complication. Anti-diabetic drugs treat diabetes mellitus by lowering glucose levels in the blood. Mostly anti-diabetic drugs are administered orally except the insulin, exenatide, and pramlintide. There are different types of anti-diabetic drugs, and their selection depends on the nature of the diabetes, age and situation of the person, and many other factors. Treatments include the agents which increase the amount of insulin secreted by the pancreas, or increase the sensitivity of target organs to insulin, and agents which decrease the rate at which glucose is absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. People are mainly focused on insulin, insulin analogues, oral hypoglycemic agents and various other complementary and alternate medicines to control the blood glucose levels in diabetes. The present review summarizes in brief about the drugs used for treatment of diabetes mellitus.