Well, Byetta has been out for over a year now. It has been so successful that Lilly originally was going to give out free travel "cool" kits to any byetta user that asked for one over the internet or by mail. They got 250,000+ orders the first month and were swamped! Prior to FDA approval and release to the general public it underwent the typical 3 phase testing for a new drug that took more than a few years. In fact, they are still testing its long term effects as they move to get approval on the once a week, once a month shot.
Im not sure what the reticence of some doctors is, unless they just are not that familiar with the testing process. My Endo guy was actually part of the clinical trials for the drug and is very enthusiastic about the results they've seen. My own opinion? Well, the side effects of uncontrolled BS are pretty disasterous, so any long term effects of Byetta are probably better than being on insulin and losing my beta cell function completely. (Now Im not knocking insulin people, Im just saying as an ALTERNATIVE, Byetta seems at this point in time to preserve my overall quality of life and have less systemic impact than if I were using inuslin).
I have actually done work for Pfizer's strategic planning department and I know that drug companies are VERY aggressive about how they market their drugs to the public and to doctors, but trust me on this, they do NOT short cut testing to bring a drug to market sooner. We've all seen how much lawsuits cost a drug company when something goes astray.
I use Byetta. I feel from all the research I've done its as safe as any of the oral meds Im using. My endo guy thinks its a good bet. Theres risk in everything but this seems to be a "pretty good bet".
Warren