Comments on: Byetta cost

By: Traci Mcgee

Traci Mcgee — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:27:49 +0000

In an effort to keep you folks apprised of some trivial happenings, I write
this post.
On Monday I refilled my Byetta though Caremark (mail order), the company that
Blue Cross/Blue Shield Federal Employee Plan contracts with. They sent my order
to me second day service. It arrived today (to my neighbors door, another story)
on the third day, not second day. It’s been a warm couple of days here, and the
box came from the Chicago area. The gel packs that keep the drug cold were
completely melted, and the plastic bag that the Byetta boxes were in were not
cool to the touch.

I called Caremark, and explained the situation to them. The pharmacist I spoke
with said he was sending out a new supply overnight, to me. I may have
misunderstood him, but it seemed he was going to use my case as a way to push
for overnighting Byetta all the time. Three times he told me not to use the

presumably spoiled drug. In fact, he was also sending me a package to return the
drug to them.

Good service by Caremark. Not so good by the shipping company. (No use naming
them, as they are the only ones who flub the address, and we customers don’t
really have a say in who the shipper uses.) Moral of the story: Order your
refills far enough in advance to ride out any issues/snags that might be
involved in the refilling process.

Side note: Had to waste a dose yesterday, as I had a tiny bubble in a vial.
Barely visible, it didn’t go away, so I won’t be doing the wasted shot thing
again. I’ll just have to live with maybe one time getting less of a dose than I
should. If I’d eat better, it won’t be an issue.
Paul

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

By: Goldie Rana

Goldie Rana — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 19:48:30 +0000

Paul, I routinely end up with bubbles in my pen even though I
follow the manufacturers instructions of removing the pen needle
immediately after use and resetting the pen. I’ve found that it
is impossible to use all of the drug in the pen as the mechanism
doens’t work any more once it reaches a certain level. Since the
bubbles rise up against the plunger when I do the injection, I
don’t believe I’ve ever received a partial dose or an air bubble
during the injections because of this. I don’t mail order my pens
but the only time I’ve had to toss one out early was after I hit a
vein during injection and a drop of blood got into the pen before
I could reset it, turning the fluid a pink color.

–Michael

By: Eddy Arnetta

Eddy Arnetta — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 09:10:13 +0000

I had called customer service and they told me that they pack all their
vials of Byetta with 4 extra doses, but not to use then if it is more
than 30 days from when you open the vial. This is good to know if you
need to waste a dose, how many you have left.
HTH

By: Jennifer Stark

Jennifer Stark — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 03:38:20 +0000

In an effort to keep you folks apprised of some trivial happenings, I
write this post.
On Monday I refilled my Byetta though Caremark (mail order), the company that
Blue Cross/Blue Shield Federal Employee Plan contracts with. They sent my order
to me second day service. It arrived today (to my neighbors door, another
story) on the third day, not second day. It’s been a warm couple of days here,
and the box came from the Chicago area. The gel packs that keep the drug cold
were completely melted, and the plastic bag that the Byetta boxes were in were
not cool to the touch.