Posts tagged DiabetesDrug at That's Fit

Posts with tag DiabetesDrug

Avandia to get new heart warning label

Posted: Nov 15th 2007 7:22PM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health

Avandia, the prescription drug used to control diabetes in many U.S. patients, will have a new warning label affixed soon.

The problem is, the message may be more confusing than helpful. The U.S. government stated this week that the new warning label specifically for Avandia will say that the drug may or may not increase the risk of heart attacks. That's comforting.

The FDA concluded that studies on the drug, so far, are very contradictory and an ardent 'heart attack warning' label was not justified. Without further research, it looks like patient confusion on Avandia will only continue to escalate. If you're on the drug, do you feel safe?

Actos diabetes drug has 'protective' effect on the body?

Posted: Sep 12th 2007 11:47AM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health

Actos, the diabetes drug, has a weird set of warnings. The drug can cut the risk of heart attack, stroke and death -- but at the same time, a similar drug (Avandia) raises the risk of heart failure. What on earth is going on here?

Two studies on Actos and Avandia reached that conclusion this week, and it sets off an alarm for me. Without seeing the actual study data, the research showed that Actos lowered the risk of heart attack, stroke and overall death by 18 percent. So far, that's comforting, I think.

However, in another stab at GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia diabetes drug, a separate study stated that it actually increased the risk of heart attack by 42 percent. In addition, it raised the risk of heart failure by more than 100%.

With the torrent of news on the side effects of newer drugs these days, perhaps the goal is to continually confuse potential patients for some reason? Some studies find this, and some studies find that. Who knows what exact variables are being looked at in each study. Certainly not me.

Avandia to indeed include "black box" warning

Posted: Aug 15th 2007 2:36PM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health

After months and months of scares and media coverage on the possible heart risks of taking the diabetes drug Avandia, a "black box" warning will soon come to that drug's packaging.

The "black box" warnings will contain severe warnings about the possible side effects of taking the drug, and GlaxoSmithKline (the drug's manufacturer) apparently agreed to the addition. It probably knows that not too many patients even pay attention to all the information that comes with their medicines. In my experience, this is certainly true.

If you're a diabetes patient taking Avandia right now, what's your take on this latest development?

So finally, is Avandia good or bad?

Posted: Jul 30th 2007 4:02PM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health

There seems to be quite a bit of news about the negative side effects of many prescription drugs these days, but do these drugs help more people than they hurt?

Avandia, a diabetes drug that has received quite a bit of attention from the media since May, has reportedly helped many patients battle the oft-debilitating conditions that come along with having diabetes. Additionally, the drug has been linked to heart problems like many other prescription drugs before it.

Some will say that a single death caused (or partially caused) by the side effects of a prescription drug is worth it if the drug helps hundreds of thousands at the same time. What do you think? Do the possible benefits of certain drugs outweigh the possible or actual death numbers caused by those same drugs?

FDA mulling pulling Avandia from shelves permanently?

Posted: Jul 28th 2007 8:02PM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health

When British pharmaceutical drug giant GlaxoSmithKline reported quarterly earnings the other day, a huge black eye for the company was the sluggish sales of its Avandia diabetes drug since it was found to be linked to potential heart disease in May.

The backlash towards Avandia has grown since then, and now the FDA not only wants a suggestion of a "black box" warning on Avandia packages, but possible other suggestions. Could this lead to a ban of Avandia from U.S. shelves soon like Vioxx years back? I would not be surprised.

Medical officials see tripling of diabetes drug side effects

Posted: Jul 13th 2007 7:14PM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health

Avandia has been connected/not connected to heart attack risks lately, but reports of possible heart risks from the drug along with other side effects are now under the microscope much more than they have been in the past. What to believe? In this case, who knows.

In fact, side effects from some diabetes drugs have been reported in triple-size fashion, leading some doctors to wonder of the heart problems seen in some patients are the after-effects of certain diabetes drugs that were previously been unknown in terms of actual cause.

How are heart problems reported? With root causes not really having been categorized into specific buckets (like being traced to Avandia), I wonder how many heart problems in the U.S. can be traced to certain prescription drugs?

Diabetes drug application pulled from U.S. by Sanofi

Posted: Jun 30th 2007 5:34PM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health

European pharmaceutical giant Sanofi is giving up the pursuit of selling the obesity drug rimonabant in the U.S. after several setbacks. Rimonabant was Sanofi's largest new drug geared for sale in the U.S., so the French drugmaker, alas, will have to try another one.

Just recently, rimonabant was connected with increased suicidal thinking and depression and was effectively shunned by a U.S. advisory panel, and that action seemed to be the death knell for the drug, which has been released already outside the U.S.

Sanofi did say that it may reintroduce the drug at a future date after its submits the the drug's application to the FDA. Rimonabant has been on the European market since 2006 and sells well there.

New study finds that Avandia doesn't increase heart attack risk

Posted: Jun 7th 2007 9:33AM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health

Avandia has come under the microscope in the last month as the Cleveland Clinic attributed the diabetes drug to heart problems. As usual (it seems), there is another party that is refuting that evidence and is saying that there is no significant increase in heart attacks by patients using Avandia.

This time, the British study -- which was funded by a"drug company" -- stated that there was no connection between Avandia use and heart attacks. If the "drug company" was Avandia maker GlaxoSmithKline, is the new study to be believed at all?

Without total and complete transparency here, I would not put much stock on a new study unless conducted without bias by an independent lab/researcher. Just my two cents.

Diabetes drug may cause heart attacks

Posted: May 22nd 2007 8:35PM by Brian White
Filed under: General Health, Diet and Weight Loss

Another day, another warning from a prescription drug. GlaxoSmithKline's "Avandia" diabetes drug (aka, rosiglitazone) is being hailed as raising the risk of a heart attack and heart death by 43% and 64%, respectively, when taken for diabetes treatment.

It continues to baffle me how synthetic drugs continue to be linked t heart problems, although GSK says in this case that the benefits outweigh the detriments. I'd like to see the details on how it comes by that assessment, though.

Dr. Steve Nissen, whom I've covered before, said that "Unfortunately, rosiglitazone appears to increase, rather than decrease, the most serious complication of diabetes, heart disease."

For more information on preventing or managing diabetes, please visit The Diabetes Blog.

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