Diabetes becomes a global challenge at EASD, as hypoglycaemia has severe economic impact

Some 18,000 delegates from across the world attended the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 50th Annual Meeting in Vienna this week. But judging by the nationalities named on the ID tags hanging around attendees’ necks, it was truly a global event with delegates from Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, the USA, Mexico, India and Australia among the countries represented outside Europe.

The hanger-sized exhibition hall was filled with the largest and most high-tech stands as ‘Big Pharma’ rivals vied to push their products. Diabetes, as one pharma company stressed to TPL’s representative, is no longer just a two-horse race. Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, Bayer, Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, Abbot Labs, Merck & Co and AstraZeneca were among the big names showing off their wares. Diabetes is a growing global burden on health care budgets, especially in developing countries where Westernized diets and lifestyles are having an unintended impact. But as the number of patients rises, so do the options with which they could be treated, from oral medications to injections, once-daily and twice-weekly formulations.

Economic burden to health care systems