Diabetes treatment costs soar to £2.3bn

The cost to the NHS of drug treatment for diabetes has more than doubled to £2.3 billion in the last decade while the number of prescription items has increased by 60% according to the latest data.

In 2025/26, 83 million prescription items used to treat diabetes were prescribed to 4.1 million identified patients in England at a total cost of £2.3 billion. This represents a 135% increase in costs, when medication prescribed to treat diabetes cost £985 million in 2016/17. It also represents a 60% increase in prescription items from 52 million items in 2016/17. 

Much of the cost increase over the past decade has been driven by the prescribing of SGLT2 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists and improved glucose monitors: 

Anti-diabetic drugs, primarily used to treat type 2 diabetes, remained the most prescribed treatment for diabetes in 2025/26, with 64 million items were prescribed at a cost of £1.5 billion, accounting for 64% of total diabetes drug costs. Within this, the cost of tirzepatide rose 377% to £574 million in 2025/26, up from 2024/25 when it cost £120 million. The drug also saw a 174% increase to 3.1 million items prescribed in 2025/26 and was the most prescribed GLP-1 receptor agonist. 

Other key findings in the data show that: 

• Diabetes treatments accounted for 20% of total spend on all prescribed items in England in 2025/26, up from 11% in 2016/17. 
• Patients prescribed diabetes medication were concentrated in areas with greater deprivation, with an estimated 386,000 more patients in the most deprived areas than the least deprived. 
• GLP-1 receptor agonists accounted for 6% of the total items prescribed for diabetes and 33% of the total cost. 

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