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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Biotech Jim who wrote (18199)	10/31/2005 2:35:46 PM
From: rkrw	Respond to of 52153

BJ, Thanks for the info. Completely agree. here's a ymb post from today, a doc who has been posting 1/month updates since launch. Byetta: 5 mos update by: rinvint 10/31/05 02:00 pm Msg: 152850 of 152857 Byetta has changed the treatment of type II diabetics in my practice. Currently treating 250+ patients on byetta. Diabetes control has improved significantly on byetta. The vast majority of patients have lost a significant amount of weight on byetta. Average wt loss 12lb in 4 weeks and 18lb after 8 weeks. Best wt loss was 40lb in 8 weeks. The patients were initially selected based on their need to loose wt ie diabetics with high BMI were started first. Wt loss appears to accelerate on the byetta 10 in patients with limited initial response. Nausea and occasional reflux sx are the only side effects that are clinically apparent. Five patients were discontinued. Two pts due to persistent nausea; three others that stopped the medication because of nausea without consulting with me. If nausea is pertinent it helps to use byetta just before meals without any delay. In fact, about 2/3 of patients have no significant nausea at all. As pointed out in earlier posts, byetta is unique by the fact that restores postprandial firstphase insulin response and leads to improved postprandial blood glucose level. Often patients can discontinue their sulfonureas and other diabetic drugs. The concept of well being is consistent among all byetta users. Once on byetta patients feel better and have more energy. Some patients report that they couldn't imagine being without byetta. For all new medications it is absolutely crucial to be on the alert for side effects. So far, I have not seen any problems with byetta, in fact, it appears to be beneficial beyond a diabetes drug; clinically it shows benefits in overall well being, breathing, peripheral edema, mood, wt loss, reduction in lipid abnormalities, increase in activity, decreased appetite, reduction in blood pressure (related to wt loss); There is no significant hypoglycemia that I have seen. This may be due to the fact that I generally discontinue sulfonureas and keep pts only on metformin upon initiation of byetta to optimize wt loss. IMHO byetta will change how the medical community treats diabetes and IF byetta leads to beta cell regeneration as suggested by animal models it will have a higher impact on public health than we can imagine at this point in time.