SOME ORAL DRUGS FOR TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS (Medical Letter, 8/13/99)
Drug                            Usual daily dosage                     Cost[1]
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Sulfonylureas - first generation
 Acetohexamicle - generic price 500 to 750 mg once or divided           $14.18
  Dymelor (Lilly)                                                        14.07
 Chlorpropamide - generic price 250 to 375 mg once                       14.69
  Diabinese (Pfizer)                                                     25.26
 Tolazamide - generic price     250 to 500 mg once or divided             3.50
  Tolinase (Pharmacia & Upjohn)                                          25.46
 Tolbutamide - generic price    1000 to 2000 mg divided                  17.35
  Orinase (Pharmacia & Upjohn)                                           22.54
              - second generation
 Glimepiride - Arnaryl (Hoechst Marion Roussel)
                                1 to 4 mg once                            7.34
 Glipizide - generic price      10 to 20 mg once or divided               2.79
  Glucotrol (Pfizer)                                                     21.93
  Glucotrol XL sustained-release tablets
                                5 mg once                                10.34
 Glyburide - average generic price
                                5 to 20 mg once or divided               15.17
  DiaBeta (Hoechst Marion Roussel)                                       21.24
  Micronase (Pharmacia & Upjohn)                                         24.30
  micronized tablets - average generic price
                                3 to 12 mg once or divided               17.61
   Glynase (Pharmacia & Upjohn)                                          21.31
Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors
 Acarbose - Precose (Bayer)     50 to 100 mg tid with meals              46.54
 Miglitol - Glyset (Pharmacia & Upjohn)
                                50 to 100 mg tid with meals              51.75
Thiazolidinediones ("Glitazones")
 Troglitazone - Rezulin (Parke-Davis)
                                200 to 600 mg once[2]                    89.28
 Rosiglitazone - Avandia (SmithKline Beecham)
                                4 to 8 mg once                           75.00
                                or 2 to 4 mg bid                        108.75
 Pioglitazone - Actos (Takeda/Lilly)
                                15 to 45 mg once[3]                      85.50
Others
 Metformin - Glucophage (Bristol-Myers Squibb)
                                1500 to 2550 mg divided                  54.35
 Repaglinide - Prandin (Novo Nordisk)
                                1 to 4 mg tid with meals                 67.12
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1. Cost to the pharmacist for 30 days' treatment with the lowest usual daily
dosage, based on wholesale (AWP or HCFA) price listings in Drug Topics Red Book
1999 and August Update.
2. For use with other drugs.
3. According to the manufacturer.