Medication Guide

What is the most important information I should know about exenatide injection?

• Serious side effects can happen in people who take exenatide injection, including inflammation of your pancreas (pancreatitis). Stop using exenatide injection and call your healthcare provider right away if you have severe pain in your stomach area (abdomen) that will not go away, with or without vomiting. You may feel the pain from your abdomen to your back.

• Exenatide is an injectable prescription medicine that is used along with diet and exercise to improve blood sugar (glucose) in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
• Exenatide is not recommended for people who take exenatide or other medicines called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist.
• It is not known if exenatide injection is safe and effective in children.

Who should not use exenatide injection?

Do not use exenatide injection if:

• you have had a severe allergic reaction to exenatide or any of the other ingredients in exenatide injection. See the end of this Medication Guide for a complete list of ingredients in exenatide injection. See “What are the possible side effects of exenatide injection?” for symptoms of a serious allergic reaction.

• you have a history of low blood platelet count from using exenatide medicines (drug-induced thrombocytopenia).

• have or have had problems with your pancreas.
• have severe problems with your stomach, such as delayed emptying of your stomach (gastroparesis) or problems with digesting food.
• are scheduled to have surgery or other procedures that use anesthesia or deep sleepiness (deep sedation).

• are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if exenatide injection will harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking exenatide injection. Talk to your healthcare provider about the best way to control your blood sugar if you plan to become pregnant or while you are pregnant.

• are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. It is not known if exenatide passes into your breast milk. You should talk with your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby while taking exenatide injection.

  Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and herbal supplements. Exenatide injection may affect the way some medicines work and some other medicines may affect the way exenatide injection works.

  Before using exenatide injection, talk to your healthcare provider about low blood sugar and how to manage it. Tell your healthcare provider if you are taking other medicines to treat diabetes, including insulin or sulfonylureas.

  Especially tell your healthcare provider if you take:

• birth control pills that are taken by mouth (oral contraceptives). Exenatide injection may lower the amount of the medicine in your blood from your birth control pills and they may not work as well to prevent pregnancy. Take your birth control pills at least one hour before your injection of exenatide. If you must take your birth control pills with food, take it with a meal or snack at a time when you do not also take exenatide injection.
• antibiotics. Take antibiotic medicines at least one hour before taking exenatide injection. If you must take your antibiotic with food, take it with a meal or snack at a time when you do not also take exenatide injection.
• warfarin
• lovastatin

Know the medicines you take. Keep a list of them to show your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.

• Read the Instructions for Use that comes with exenatide injection.
• Use exenatide injection exactly as your healthcare provider tells you to.
• Your healthcare provider should teach you how to inject exenatide before you use it for the first time.
• Inject your dose of exenatide under the skin (subcutaneous injection) of your upper leg (thigh), stomach area (abdomen), or upper arm as instructed by your healthcare provider. Do not inject into a muscle (intramuscularly) or vein (intravenously).
• Inject exenatide injection two times each day, at any time within 60 minutes (1 hour) before your morning and evening meals (or before the two main meals of the day, approximately 6 hours or more apart). Do not take exenatide injection after your meal.
• If you miss a dose of exenatide injection, skip that dose and take your next dose at the next prescribed time. Do not take an extra dose or increase the amount of your next dose to make up for a missed dose.
• Do not mix insulin and exenatide together in the same injection.
• You may give an injection of exenatide and insulin in the same body area (such as your stomach area), but not right next to each other.
• Change (rotate) your injection sites within the area you chose with each dose. Do not use the same spot for each injection.
• Do not share your exenatide pen with other people, even if the needle has been changed. You may give other people a serious infection or get a serious infection from them.
• If you take too much exenatide, call your healthcare provider or Poison Help line at 1-800-222-1222 or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away.

How should I store exenatide injection?

• Store your new, unused exenatide injection pen in the original carton in a refrigerator at 36° to 46°F (2° to 8°C).
• After first use, keep your exenatide injection pen at a temperature cooler than 77°F (25°C).
• Do not freeze your exenatide injection pen. Do not use exenatide injection if it has been frozen.
• Protect exenatide injection from light.
• Use an exenatide injection pen for only 30 days. Throw away a used exenatide injection pen after 30 days, even if there is some medicine left in the pen.
• Do not use exenatide injection after the expiration date printed on the label.
• Keep your exenatide injection pen, pen needles and all medicines out of the reach of children.

General information about the safe and effective use of exenatide injection.

Medicines are sometimes prescribed for purposes other than those listed in a Medication Guide. Do not use exenatide injection for a condition for which it was not prescribed. Do not give exenatide injection to other people, even if they have the same symptoms that you have. It may harm them. You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for information about exenatide injection that is written for health professionals.