• 13
  • September
    2010

The diabetes drug Avandia has been under heavy fire since researchers began to seriously question its effect on heart disease and instances of patient heart attacks and strokes in 2007. This past July, an advisory panel in the U.S. allowed the drug to stay on the market, but asked GlaxoKlineSmith, who manufactures the drug, to include extra warnings on the label.

Not out of the woods yet, Avandia is still being reviewed by The U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Over the Atlantic, GlaxoKlineSmith is also facing the potential of further dips in drug sales as the European Medicines Agency contemplates Avandia's future on the European market. Earlier this month, the British Medical Journal decried Avandia and claimed that the drug should have never been approved by health officials in the first place.

GlaxoKlineSmith responded quickly, stating that it had conducted tens of thousands of tests and that all had vouched for the drug's safety and benefit in regards to diabetes patients. This past July, as a U.S. panel voted to allow Avandia to stay on the market, the U.K. Commission on Human Medicines strongly urged Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to pull Avandia from the marketplace.

Despite GlaxoKlineSmith's claims that all necessary tests have already been conducted, scientific studies have continued to poke holes in the drug's safety. In addition to an increased risk of heart attack or stroke, Avandia has been linked to weaker bones and chest pain.

Source Article