November 14th 2023 marks World Diabetes Day, a day to raise awareness of the impact of diabetes globally. This year's theme is "Access to Diabetes", focusing on the importance of knowing your risk for type 2 diabetes and ensuring access to proper information and care. In honor of World Diabetes Day 2023, let's take a look at the current global burden of diabetes.

The Rising Tide of Diabetes

Diabetes has rapidly become one of the biggest global health emergencies of the 21st century. According to the International Diabetes Federation, approximately 537 million adults aged 20-79 worldwide have diabetes, with that number expected to rise to 783 million by 2045.

The vast majority of cases are type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or loses the ability to produce enough insulin. Uncontrolled, diabetes can lead to serious complications like kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke, and lower limb amputation. Sadly, a 2021 study found that over 1 million deaths per year can be directly attributed to diabetes.

From IDF Diabetes Atlas

Diabetes Impacting Young and Old

Although type 2 diabetes has traditionally been considered a disease of middle-aged and older adults, rates among youth are on the rise. One analysis found that the incidence of childhood-onset type 2 diabetes increased globally between 1990 and 2019. Women under age 30 appear to be disproportionately affected in lower-income countries.

At the same time, rates among adults are soaring. One study found that prevalence more than doubled between 1980 and 2014 in men and women. The regions with the highest rates are Oceania, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Age Distribution of Diabetes Mellitus Type 2. From M. Abdul Basith Khan et al. / Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health 10(1) 107–111. (A) 2017 Incidence vs Prevalence; (B) Invidence in 1990 vs 2017.

Driven by Obesity and Lifestyle Changes

The dramatic increase in diabetes is largely driven by lifestyle factors like poor diet, physical inactivity, and the resulting epidemic of obesity. One study found that a high body mass index accounted for over 60% of diabetes disability-adjusted life years lost globally. Smoking, air pollution, and other environmental factors also play a role.

Unequal Access to Care

While diabetes deaths have fallen in high income countries thanks to expanded access to treatment, many low and middle income nations are seeing mortality rise or remain unchanged. Insulin and other essential medicines remain prohibitively expensive or unavailable in many regions. Lack of access to diagnosis, education, and routine care also contribute to preventable deaths from acute complications.

The Road Ahead

As the new statistics illustrate, the global community continues to fall short in efforts to curb diabetes and its consequences. Creative policy solutions like subsidized access to healthy foods and routine care are urgently needed. So too are international commitments to make insulin available and affordable in every country. By working together, we can stem the tide of this preventable disease.

Unibest's Contribution

Here at Unibest, we are proud to support the development of innovative new diabetes treatments by providing a resilient supply chain for the pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates that make these drugs possible. For example, our reliable production of high-quality Empagliflozin and Dapagliflozin intermediates empowers pharmaceutical partners to get novel diabetes therapies to the patients who need them most. This World Diabetes Day, we reaffirm our commitment to enabling the next breakthroughs in diabetes care.

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