New and Improved Diabetes Medications

"Efforts to develop and approve blood glucose-lowering medicines for type 2 diabetes are at an unprecedented high," says Kelly L. Close, PWD type 1, president of Close Concerns, Inc., a health care information company, and editor-in-chief of e-newsletter diaTribe (diatribe.us). "No surprise -- so are the numbers of people with type 2 and the need for new therapies."

The need, the numbers, and the understanding that type 2 is more than just a glucose and insulin problem have revved the drug-development engines, with some likely benefits for type 1 diabetes, too. "We now know that six or more organs are involved in glucose control, including the pancreas, liver, gastrointestinal tract, muscle, adipose tissue (fat), and brain," says Susan Cornell, Pharm.D., CDE, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy in Downers Grove, Illinois.