New diabetes drug derived from Gila monster venom

Although humans have used animals and plants for millenia as a source of medicine, the recent announcement of a new diabetes drug derived from the venom of a Gila monster is a reminder of the importance of biodiversity.

From the NY Times:
The New York Times > Business > Lizard-Derived Diabetes Drug Is Approved by the F.D.A.: "A diabetes drug derived from a poisonous lizard has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, its developers, Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly, said yesterday.

The drug, called Byetta, will be the first in a new class of drugs to reach the market for Type 2 diabetes, the form that usually occurs in adults. Studies have shown it can help control blood sugar and also help people lose a few pounds."

and further down in the article:

"Byetta is a synthetic version of a peptide, or small protein, found in what has been variously described as the saliva or the venom of the Gila monster, a poisonous lizard that lives in the Southwest and Mexico.

The discovery was made in the early 1990's by Dr. John Eng, a researcher at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Bronx, who was working on a way to discover new hormones. He realized the Gila monster hormone was similar to glucagon-like peptide 1, an incretin hormone produced in the human digestive tract. "