Monday, February 26, 2007

Exenatide ("Byetta":) or "Lizard Spit"

"Exenatide (also Exendin-4, marketed as Byetta) is the first of a new class of medications approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes." (Reference wikipedia.com) This drug called
lizard spit is an injectable drug that works with metformin and may greately improve one's A1C.

More detail on this substance.

This stuff is very expensive; about $20000/month and this would be very damn expensive for something that just amounts to a supplementary substance for me. Then, too, there is the matter of it being injected twice a day. I would have to take my metformin two hours before eatting (with a snack) and inject one hour before eattting.

I was quite excited about the prospect of getting better blood sugar control by using this and then I read the bad news! I don't want to touch this stuff!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Byetta It brought my a1c down to 4.9 and helped me loose 53 pounds my insurance pays all but 25 on the copay If you want to learn more info from Byetta userers check out this blog
http://diabetes.blog.com/1181902/

Mike said...

Your weight loss and A1C drop is an incredible tribute to the Byetta. I'll have to check if my insurance company is as helpful as yours but regardless, I hope to avoid using any injectable drugs for as long as possible...