The ideal diabetes therapy: What will it look like? How close are we?

Although the number of diabetes treatments has substantially increased in the past two decades, today's therapies are considered far from ideal. Yet, what constitutes an ideal therapy is not readily clear, as diabetes drug therapies are regularly judged both by their effects on glycemia and by a wide variety of nonglycemic metrics. This review describes the characteristics of an ideal diabetes therapy from the perspective of patients, physicians, payors, and financial analysts and examines how well currently available therapies and several late-stage candidates meet these guideposts.