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Re: Anyone use Byetta?
Hi Sammi,
I don't know where the £270-300 a month came from because Byetta has never been that expensive. Byetta costs the NHS £68 per month (both the 5μ and 10μ pens cost the same). If you have to buy it on private prescription, as I did for the first 9 months the cost is between £92 and £104 depending on which chemists you get it from. I was originally prescribed it by a consultant and my GP wasn't prepared to put it on NHS prescription until he had seen whether it would work for me. It has and he did!
Hi Powerboatman,
A number of people seem to find that after an initial weight loss, it stops for a while, then resumes. I have been on Byetta since last August (so was one of the first in the UK on it) and have found that both my weight loss and appetite suppression seems to hesitate for a few weeks, then come back. Many in the US, where it has been available for nearly 3 years report the same.
Hi Ian and Ponty,
Good to have you with us. Like Ian I was surprised that a type-1 should be prescribed Byetta, because (a) it is not licenced in the UK for use with insulin and (b) because it's primary function is to trigger the pancreas to start phase 1 production of insulin, which of course a type-1's pancreas can't do. Although the other things it does, like appetite suppression, glucagon suppression and slowing down digestion, would benefit both type-1 and type-2s.
Hi Sammi,
I don't know where the £270-300 a month came from because Byetta has never been that expensive. Byetta costs the NHS £68 per month (both the 5μ and 10μ pens cost the same). If you have to buy it on private prescription, as I did for the first 9 months the cost is between £92 and £104 depending on which chemists you get it from. I was originally prescribed it by a consultant and my GP wasn't prepared to put it on NHS prescription until he had seen whether it would work for me. It has and he did!
Hi Powerboatman,
A number of people seem to find that after an initial weight loss, it stops for a while, then resumes. I have been on Byetta since last August (so was one of the first in the UK on it) and have found that both my weight loss and appetite suppression seems to hesitate for a few weeks, then come back. Many in the US, where it has been available for nearly 3 years report the same.
Hi Ian and Ponty,
Good to have you with us. Like Ian I was surprised that a type-1 should be prescribed Byetta, because (a) it is not licenced in the UK for use with insulin and (b) because it's primary function is to trigger the pancreas to start phase 1 production of insulin, which of course a type-1's pancreas can't do. Although the other things it does, like appetite suppression, glucagon suppression and slowing down digestion, would benefit both type-1 and type-2s.