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Diabetes drug 'ups heart disease, death risk' | US senators have linked a diabetes drug to heart disease
and death. They have claimed that the drug Avandia used by tens of thousands of
Britons increases the risk of heart problems and could even lead to death, reports
the Telegraph. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the medicines safety
watchdog, has urged an advisory committee to verify the safety of Avandia. The
British counterpart, the MHRA, said it is "continuously monitoring" the safety
of the drug. In a report, senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley alleged that
the FDA had not banned the drug because it was too "cozy" with drugs firms. They
quoted a memo written by two FDA reviewers, which concluded: "The risks of (Avandia)
are serious and exceed those for rival drug Actos." There was "strong evidence
that (Avandia) confers an increased risk of" heart attack and heart failure when
compared to Actos, the reviewers said. A 2007 study, published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association, showed that Avandia puts users at a 60 per
cent greater risk of heart failure and a 29 per cent greater risk of death than
other medication. "Americans have a right to know there are serious health risks
associated with Avandia and GlaxoSmithKline had a responsibility to tell them.
Patients trust drugs companies with their health and their lives," the Telegraph
quoted Senator Baucus as saying. However, a GSK spokesman said it dismissed the
report's conclusions. The report "cherry-picks information from documents, which
mischaracterises GlaxoSmithKline's comprehensive efforts to research Avandia and
communicate those findings to regulators, physicians and patients," the company
said. The company said that it had rigorously studied Avandia's safety and "consistently
shared this data with regulators around the world". GSK said that it "does not
condone any effort to silence scientific debate". |
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