Yes, Byetta is approved and on the NHS list, but prescribed by very few NHS GPs because of cost. GPs would rather we all just used insulin as it is cheap. My consultant describes insulin as the biggest spanner in the box, and shouldn't be used when there is something far more appropriate.
I think the main advantages of Byetta are in the way it works and its beneficial side effects. It is an incretin, which is the substance that is secreted by the stomach when it senses food and triggers the pancreas to produce insulin. As soon as there is enough insulin to deal with the food, the incretin stops calling for it. That means it can never cause a hypo. The great side effect is that nearly everyone on it experiences weight loss - without even trying to diet. On the down side, yes it has to be injected and it can cause nausea, although I haven't experienced that.
With many type 2s incretin production is suppressed to some degree, so the pancreas gets either half the message, or no message. Unlike Byetta, which tops up the suppressed incretin, Sitagliptin stops the suppression, thereby allowing the stomach to create and use its own incretin. This explanation is probably a huge over-simplification, but I am not a medical man.
Both are very new - I believe that the action of incretins was only discovered in the 1990s.
Dennis
PS Marty, is that the Aberdeen & ManU legend?
