Diabetes mellitus belongs to the most rapidly increasing diseases worldwide. Approximately 90–95% of these patients suffer from type 2 diabetes mellitus, which is characterized by peripheral insulin resistance and the progressive loss of beta‐cell function and mass. Considering the complications of this chronic disease, a reliable anti‐diabetic treatment is indispensable. An ideal oral anti‐diabetic drug should not only correct glucose homeostasis but also preserve or even augment beta‐cell function and mass, ameliorate the subclinical inflammation present under insulin‐resistant conditions and prevent the macro‐ and microvascular consequences of diabetes in order to reduce the mortality. Despite the many anti‐diabetic drugs already in use, there is an ongoing research for additional drugs, guided by different concepts of the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. This review will briefly summarize current oral anti‐diabetic drugs. In addition, emerging strategies for the treatment of diabetes will be described, among them the inhibition of glucagon action and anti‐inflammatory drugs. Their suitability as ‘ideal anti‐diabetic drugs’ will be discussed.
DOI: 10.1111/bph.12624
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