How is Forteo Administered?
Forteo comes in a pre-metered dose pen that last for twenty-eight days. The patient injects a 20 microgram dose daily in the thigh or stomach. The pen should be discarded in a sharps container and disposed at a medical waste facility at the end of twenty-eight days even if there is some medication left in the pen. The contents of the pen shouldn’t be transferred from the pen to a syringe. Forteo was very effective for me, but there are some problems I see with this drug which I’ll explain. Forteo is extremely expensive; at $1,000.00 a month and quite a few of the insurance companies do not cover it, or do so with severely high co-pays. For this reason the cost is prohibited for many patients. Most insurance companies require patients to treat with a bisphosphonate first without success to qualify or have pre-existing fractures and a t-score of -3.0 or below. Some clinicians will prescribe Forteo with a t-score of ≤ -2.5 with a history of fracture. These treatment determinations are bas
