According to this press release, Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc — the same company that makes my beloved, nauseating Symlin — just got FDA approval to sell its Byetta drug as a standalone medication to improve glycemic control in Type 2.
I know much more about Symlin than I do Byetta, but the basic gist is that Byetta used to only be approved for use in patients who were on other types of diabetes medications and still not achieving adequate control. Now you can go straight on Byetta if you want, which — if I may quote — “was the first approved drug from the GLP-1 analog class of Type 2 diabetes medicines that work by stimulating release of insulin only when blood sugar levels are high.”