Net cost of diabetes drugs jumped by nearly 50 per cent over the six years to last year in the UK as the number of diabetes prescriptions topped 40 million, official figures revealed.

According to the released figures, the diabetes drugs bill jumped from £514 million in 2005-06 to a whopping £760.3 million in 2011, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the total drugs bill for prescriptions made last year.

There are 2.8 million diabetes patients in the country and an additional 850,000 people who are unaware that they are suffering from the condition. This compares with 1.9 million diabetes sufferers who were on doctors’ books as having diabetes in 2005-06.

The number of diabetes prescriptions climbed by roughly 50 per cent during the same six-year period, from 27.1 million in 2005-06 to 40.6 million in 2011-12.

Tim Straughan, CEO of the Health & Social Care Information Centre for England, said, “Our figures show diabetes is having a growing impact on prescribing in a very obvious way.”

Nearly 90 per cent diabetes patients have Type 2 diabetes, which is one of the biggest causes of overweight or obese.

Barbara Young, CEO of the Diabetes UK charity, said that the country was facing the real risk of diabetes making the NHS bankrupt within a generation.