Now Oral

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Anchor lead: A diabetes medicine that used to be injected
can now be taken by mouth, Elizabeth Tracey reports

October 16, 2019 It’s a pretty safe bet that most people don’t want to have to use injectable medications. Now people with diabetes who need the class of medicines known as GLP1s, previously requiring injection, have an oral version available. Rita Kalyani, a diabetes expert at Johns Hopkins, explains.

Kalyani: The Food and Drug Administration approved the first
oral GLP1 treatment for type 2 diabetes. This is big news for people with type
2 diabetes. Up until this point every medication in this class was an
injectable medication. Now to have an oral medication that has similar effects
but does not need to be injected can really expand the scope of patients who
may be willing to take this class of medications but perhaps weren’t so excited
about taking injections before.  :31

Kalyani says the manufacturer has announced that the oral
and injectable forms of the drug will be priced similarly, and that’s also good
news. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.