Amylin/Lilly's Byetta performs well in drug resistant diabetes

US drugmakers Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly announced detailed findings from a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, held in Washington DC, which showed that Byetta (exenatide) injection lowered blood glucose levels for people with type 2 diabetes who had not achieved target levels, despite the use of a thiazolidinedione with or without metformin.

According to the firms, patients using the agent showed improvements in three important measures of blood glucose control: fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C , which improved approximately 0.9%. 62% of study participants on Byetta who completed the full study reached target A1C of 7% or less, which is the target for good glucose control recommended by the ADA.

The firms noted that Byetta treatment also resulted in a reduction in average body weight, with patients losing approximately three pounds, while those treated with placebo lost an average of half a pound.