Avandia

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Avandia is a drug used in the management of type 2 diabetes, a condition also known as adult-onset diabetes. Avandia is designed to assist the body in using insulin more effectively to lower blood sugar.

A recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that patients using Avandia have a 43% greater risk of suffering a heart attack and a 64% greater risk of dying from a cardiovascular event while taking Avandia than those not using Avandia. These findings were based upon 42 studies involving 15,560 patients who took Avandia and 12,283 who took other drugs or were given placebo. The study, conducted by doctors at the renowned Cleveland Clinic, presents important concern, as diabetics are already prone to heart disease.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert in May 2007 warning of the increased risk of heart attack and cardiac events leading to death. Since the alert, the FDA has asked Avandia’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, to place the most serious warning a drug label can bear, a “black box” warning, on the drug (CLICK HERE to read the FDA news release.).

Congressional investigators are looking into claims that GlaxoSmithKline “silenced one or more medical professionals who attempted to speak out about the potential for cardiovascular problems with Avandia.”

A recent article in The New York Times reports that one early critic of Avandia, Dr. John B. Buse, was “intimidated” by the drug company. As early as 2000, Dr. Buse, a diabetes specialist who is slated to become the next president of the American Diabetes Association, charged in a letter to the FDA that Glaxo had used “blatant selective manipulation of data” to overstate the benefits of Avandia and to understate its risks.

The FDA approved Avandia in 1999. Avandia generates over $2 billion a year in sales for GlaxoSmithKline. There are approximately one million Americans currently taking the drug and over six million people have used Avandia worldwide.

If you believe that you or a loved one has suffered as a result of taking Avandia, you may want to speak with an attorney, today, regarding your potential lawsuit. A lawyer familiar with new developments in the investigation of Avandia may be able to help you make important personal and legal decisions. Give us a call at 1-800-992-6878 or please CLICK HERE for a free consultation.