BYETTA Approved for Expanded Use as First-Line Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes

The Journal of Business ^ | 10/30/2009

[Military family member]

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (Nasdaq: AMLN) and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an expanded indication for BYETTA(R) (exenatide) injection. BYETTA is now approved for use as a stand-alone medication (monotherapy) along with diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. Previously, it was approved for use only in patients who were also taking other common diabetes medications and had not achieved adequate glycemic control.

"The expanded indication gives physicians the option to prescribe BYETTA as a first-line treatment, increasing the number of patients who may benefit from the medication and providing an opportunity to treat patients with BYETTA earlier in the disease," said Orville G. Kolterman, M.D., senior vice president of research and development, Amylin Pharmaceuticals. "Type 2 diabetes is a complex disease, so it is essential that healthcare professionals and their patients have a wide array of treatments that can effectively control blood glucose levels."

[Domandred]

reduced their A1C, a measure of average blood sugar over three months, by 0.7 percentage points and 0.9 percentage points, respectively, and lost 6.0 pounds and 6.4 pounds, respectively.

That's actually not very good imo. My wife blew those numbers away simply doing a modified Atkins diet. Low carb and no processed foods at all. If she couldn't pronounce the ingredients she didn't eat it.

Now if those people on BYETTA were eating full carb normal people food that might be something, but the article doesn't say what the participants diet and exercise was.

[Eleven Bravo 6 319thID]

Been taking Byetta for over a year. It is wonderful for glucose control as evidenced by the A1C. The one negative is it is very expensive. It is OK with my good prescription plan, but paying the full amount by yourself would be a jolt. I would expect that Obamacare would not cover it.

[Domandred]

Eating a normal diet keeping caloric intake down or doing low carb or some other custom restrictive diet?

Low carb (Atkins) can be spendy on the pocket book too, and as odd as it seems you can get really tired of steak...

Yea and my wife told me how much byetta is. Almost choked.

[Uriah_lost]

This is the one developed from gila monster venom, IIRC...

[magellan]

Color me ignorant. But I remember my old great aunts and uncles with Type 2 Diabetes back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Diet was the primary method of control of blood sugar, then medication, and only insulin as a last resort.

No sugar, no bread. Eggs and bacon was okay for breakfast, but no toast, no cereal, and no orange juice. Adkins before people could spell Adkins.

A low-carb diet is not pricey, because high protein foods are more filling than carbohydrates, so one eats less of them. You don't have to eat steak to be on a low-carb diet.