Non-insulin therapies for type 2 diabetes

Sedentary lifestyles, dietary changes and genetics are some of the key factors that have conspired to create the current worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes (T2D), an acquired syndrome of elevated blood glucose. T2D is closely associated with obesity and is characterized by an initial phase of progressive insulin resistance and a subsequent phase of β-cell (insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells) exhaustion. An estimated 246 million people worldwide (20.8 million in the US alone1) have T2D and this number is projected to grow to 366 million by 2030 (Ref. 2).