Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a controversial diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.
The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia, intended to treat Type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.
“Rosiglitazone should be removed from the market,” one of the reports, written by Dr David Graham and Dr Kate Gelperin of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), concludes. Both authors recommended that Avandia be withdrawn.
Meanwhile, experts in India hope that the US report will prompt the Health Ministry to take some “definitive action”. The drug is being prescribed for lakhs of diabetics in India.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
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