Type 2 diabetes has previously been associated with obese people in the U.S and other rich countries, but it's beginning to hit the developing world hard, with 80 percent of sufferers in low and middle income brackets, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

A report in the British newspaper the Telegraph suggests that as poorer countries rapidly urbanize and experience other changes to traditional diet and ways of life, type 2 diabetes will become a much bigger problem. In the next 20 years, diabetes is expected to soar by 80 percent in Africa and 100 percent in Latin America, while growth in the US will be 43 percent, according to the same report. And, this year, diabetes will kill about 3.8 million people worldwide, about the same amount that will die of AIDS.

Bad news you say? Well, not if you're an insulin or diabetes drug manufacturer. "Diabetes is growing fastest in Africa, Asia and Latin America," said Lars Rebien Sorensen, chief executive of Novo Nordisk, the world's largest maker of insulin. "At the same time we are seeing pressure on the US health care system, where there could be price controls. That is going to put pressure on global growth."