OBJECTIVES: Metabolic agents have the highest expense (130 million Euros per year in the Valencian Community) among the top five therapeutic categories of drugs for adults aged 18 and over. Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is the main cause of this. Moreover, diabetes is a chronic illness that requires continuous medical care and patient self-management education to prevent acute complications and to reduce the risk of long-term complications. Clinical Risk Groups (CRGs) are a tool claimed as valid for diabetes patient management. In this context we use this methodology to conduct a pharmaceutical cost analysis of diabetes in an Eastern Spanish region where the prevalence reaches approximately 8 %. METHODS: A database of 5,200,000 subjects was used to analyse the prevalence of patients with DM, comorbidity and complications. The patients with DM diagnoses were classified into CRGs to know their severity levels and pharmaceutical cost was also assigned. A multivariable statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the correlation and level of explanation between CRGs' severity level and pharmaceutical expenditure. RESULTS: Identified 300,698 patients with DM type 2 for a prevalence of 7.85% in men and 6.77% in women being the 13.2% and 7,98% in unders 50 years old, respectively.   The 69,1% treated with orals hypoglycemics being combied therapy in over 75% of these.  The use cosumption ratio glucometer strip, increaes with disease progression.  It Was posible to identify the presence of complicactions in patiens analysed. A high correlation between pharmaceutical costs and CRG severity level was found. Comorbidity is a predictor for adjusting the risk of pharmaceutical expenditure. CONCLUSIONS: The model obtained could be a useful tool for managing pharmaceutical budget policies and patient management. The use of this measurement technique is useful for monitoring the health medical expense.