Emerging drugs for diabetic peripheral neuropathy and neuropathic pain

Introduction: Diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DSPN) is a common complication of diabetes.

Areas covered: In this review, the authors discuss the emerging drugs for DSPN, which aim either at improving alleviation of neuropathic pain or addressing the putative mechanisms underlying diabetic neuropathy.

Expert Opinion: Current treatment does not address the sensory deficits and pathogenesis underlying DSPN, so there is an unmet need for treatment options targeting the natural history of the condition. Some of these pathogenetic therapies have demonstrated clinically relevant improvements in neuropathic endpoints in recent randomised controlled trials. Since any effective analgesic monotherapy is known to induce a clinically meaningful response in only some 50% of the patients, there remains a substantial unmet need in patients with neuropathic pain. Advanced knowledge in the neurobiology of neuropathic pain and improved phenotypic profiling have led to a burst of research into novel pharmaceutical approaches. An array of promising molecular entities have reached the clinical stage of development, which should improve our therapeutic armamentarium in the fight against DSPN and neuropathic pain in the foreseeable future.