OBJECTIVES Diabetes mellitus Typ2 (T2DM) is a metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia with a high risk-potential of microvascular and macrovascular complications. In addition to glycemic control important therapy targets are the prevention of hypoglycemia and weight gain as well as blood pressure control due to national guidelines (German Medical Association 2013). To describe the current state of T2DM epidemiology and therapeutic needs in Germany which is mandatory when submitting AMNOG dossiers. METHODS To describe epidemiology of diabetes a targeted literature research was conducted in PubMed in 2014 using the search terms (epidemiology OR incidence OR prevalence). To identify relevant comorbidity information the following terms were used (metabolic syndrome OR glycemic control OR hypoglycemia OR obesity OR blood pressure) and combined with AND diabetes AND Germany. PubMed research was supplemented by additional searches in guidelines in German/English. RESULTS The screening of the epidemiologic results identified nine relevant publications: two specified a T2DM-prevalence of 15.3% and 14.7% (Wittchen et al 2007, Huppertz et al 2009) and two studies estimated a T2DM incidence of 15.8 per 1000 patient years (KORA, MONICA). Treatment prevalence increased from 5.9% in 1998 to 8.9% in 2007 related to the total population (Hauner 2013). Arterial hypertension was the most frequent comorbity (83%) of T2DM (Hagen et al. 2010). In 2010, a disease management program in North Rhine showed that only 15% of participants with T2DM achieved a BMI <25 (Hagen et al. 2010). Long-term trials investigating the efficacy of antidiabetics on the prevention of macrovascular complications are limited (Drug Commission of German Medical Association 2009; Matthaei et al. 2009). CONCLUSIONS While treatment prevalence is increasing and glycemic control seems to be sufficiently achieved a substantial unmet medical need is identified for antidiabetics with a significant effect on weight reduction and blood pressure control in patients with T2DM in Germany.