[0009] The present invention also provides a method of treating diabetes including administering to a subject in need thereof via the oral, ocular, nasal, nasolacrimal, inhalation or pulmonary, or oral cavity (sublingual or Buccal cell), a blood glucose reducing amount of a therapeutic composition, for example, an incretin mimetic agent or a functional equiva lent thereof, and an absorption increasing amount of a suitable nontoxic, nonionic alkyl glycoside having a hydro phobic alkyl group joined by a linkage to a hydrophilic saccharide, thereby increasing the absorption of incretin mimetic agent or insulin and loWering the level of blood glucose and treating diabetes in the subject.

The linkage betWeen the hydrophobic alkyl group and the hydro philic saccharide can include, among other possibilities, a glycosidic, thioglycosidic (Horton), amide (Carbohydrates as Organic RaW Materials, F. W. Lichtenthaler ed., VCH Publishers, NeW York, 1991), ureide (Austrian Pat. 386,414 (1988); Chem.

A phar maceutically acceptable carrier can also be selected from substances such as distilled Water, benZyl alcohol, lactose, starches, talc, magnesium stearate, polyvinylpyrrolidone, alginic acid, colloidal silica, titanium dioxide, and ?avoring agents.

Other compounds include, for example, nicotine, interferon (e.g., alpha, beta, gamma), PYY, GLP-1, synthetic exendin-4 (Exenatide), parathyroid hormone, and human groWth hor mone or other loW molecular Weight peptides and proteins.

The sustained release format can be an ocular insert, erodible microparticulates, sWelling mucoadhesive particulates, pH sensitive micropar ticulates, nanoparticles/latex systems, ion-exchange resins and other polymeric gels and implants (Ocusert, AlZa Corp., California; Joshi, A., S. Ping and K. J. Himmelstein, patent application WO 91/19481).