OBJECTIVES:   Type 2 diabetes mellitus is serious condition associated of chronic complications whose economic impact on both patients and society is constantly increasing. Diabetics are the 4st in the drug spending in Slovakia. Our objectives was to explore drug costs for diabetes and besides the costs to explore also drug consumption and number treated patients with antidiabetics. METHODS: The data on drugs consumption were from national databases IMS Health and Pharmadata Ltd. with 293.935 diabetic patients cohort data in 4 years. To look into the impact of the drug policies in the Slovak Republic in 2006-2009. We calculated the impact of several regulatory measures on the size of the market and health insurance expenditure. Among the evaluated measures were: a) Lowering the VAT for drugs from 19% to 10%, effective from 2007 b) flat price cut in 2007 (-6.6%) and in 2008 (-7.4%) c) introduction of degressive mark-up for wholesalers and for pharmacies d) first and second rounds of the international reference pricing for all drugs in 2009.  RESULTS: The total antidiabetics volume (oral antidiabetics + insulin) of the Slovak market in 2009 was €38.9 mil in manufacturers´ prices. 5% of the population with type 2 diabetes accounted for 8% of the total healthcare expenditure in Slovakia. In  2006 to 2009 number of treated patients with antidiabetics increased by 11%. In 2006 to 2009 7 new antidiabetics (molecules) entered the market. The regression results (40.0 vs €38.9 mil) suggested a positive relationship between the reimbursement price and probability of prescribing brand name antidiabetics. CONCLUSIONS: DM diagnosis implies a relevant economic impact, has a high cost to society. The price regulation in 2006 to 2009 was able to generate the profit and decresing the share of pharma expenditure in total health expenditure while increasing access new to drugs, and keeping the copayments low.