Key Milestones in Diabetes Treatment History

The history of diabetes treatment spans millennia, but the most transformative breakthroughs occurred in the last century, starting with insulin and progressing to oral medications and GLP-1 agonists.

The top 3

  1. Discovery of Insulin's Impact: The discovery of insulin in 1921-1922 by Banting, Best, and Macleod revolutionized diabetes care, transforming it from a fatal disease to a manageable condition and saving millions of lives.
  2. Introduction of Oral Hypoglycemic Agents: Oral hypoglycemic agents, primarily used for type 2 diabetes, emerged in the 1950s, with the sulfonylurea carbutamide introduced in 1955, followed by biguanides like metformin.
  3. Emergence of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists: The first GLP-1 was discovered in 1984, with exenatide becoming the first FDA-approved GLP-1 receptor agonist for type 2 diabetes in 2005, followed by agents like liraglutide and semaglutide.

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