On Saturday the New York Times published an article concerning the possible cardiovascular risk to patients taking Avandia for diabetes. This has been in the news for sometime now but until recently had died down. The concern is whether taking the drug raises the user’s risk of having a heart attack or developing heart failure. 

Today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report saying that they were reviewing clinical study results and observational studies to determine if Avandia posed a big enough risk to be removed from the market. They stated that no conclusions or recommendations had been reached at this time but they planned to release their findings at a public meeting in July.

Meanwhile, the FDA suggests that all patients continue to take their Avandia unless they are told to stop by their doctor.

A bipartisan Senate investigation of the situation reported that GlaxoSmithKline, makers of Avandia, are responsible for the drug’s current problems because they failed to alert patients for years concerning the drug’s dangers. So the Avandia debacle continues as does the many woes of the Food and Drug Administration. I don’t mind admitting that BEFORE all of this hit the news many months ago, I was taking Avandia.  bjmdjd

Material modifications since posting: 7/14/2010 and 7/16/2010

Avandia · danger of Avandia · diabetes · Food and Drug Administration · GlaxoSmithKline