Poison Lizard-Derived Drug BYETTA, Launched in the UK

Filed in archive Treatment on May 12, 2007

Approved in the EU in November 2006 and in the US since April 2005 (as an adjunct therapy to metformin and/or a sulfonylurea) for type 2 diabetes - BYETTA - have been launched in the UK for the treatment the following diabetes-related ailments: heart disease, kidney failure and blindness.

BYETTA is said to have been developed from the spit of a poisonous lizard.

Contrary to how other diabetes drugs and insulin work, BYETTA is so unique that it was developed to help the body produce the right amount of insulin at the right time in type 2 diabetes patients. It comes in a pen that has the patient's daily doses of medicine measured.

BYETTA is a product of Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and is the first in the new class of drugs called incretin mimetics - it mimics the action of the antidiabetic or glucose- lowering actions of naturally occurring human hormones called incretins.

Click here to find out more about BYETTA.