There is one diabetes drug that made quite a buzz at the recent ADA Scientific Sessions in Chicago: BYETTA® (exenatide). (Sorry for not blogging about it earlier.)

Yes, the diabetes drug derived from poison lizard.

BYETTA® is the first in a class of drugs called incretin mimetics for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. BYETTA® exhibits many of the same effects as the human incretin hormone glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1). GLP-1 improves blood sugar after food intake through multiple effects that work in concert on the stomach, liver, pancreas and brain.

Treatment with BYETTA® (exenatide) injection was associated with sustained blood sugar control and progressive weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes were the findings from a three-year, open label study presented at the said meeting.

Approved by the FDA in 2005, BYETTA® is indicated for use as an adjunctive therapy for people with type 2 diabetes who are not achieving blood sugar control using metformin, a sulfonylurea, or a thiazolidinedione.

According to John Buse, Chief of the Division of General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, NC:

"Type 2 diabetes is associated with impaired insulin production in the pancreas that progressively deteriorates over time. Although currently BYETTA is not indicated to improve beta cell function, these study findings suggest that long-term BYETTA treatment may help improve insulin production, a root cause of the condition, and help people with type 2 diabetes better control their blood sugar levels."

BYETTA® (exenatide) is a product of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company.

Find more details of the BYETTA® study from Lilly's newsroom.