"Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a controversial diabetes
medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart
failure each month, according to confidential government reports
that recommend the drug be removed from the market.
The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named
Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be
averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia,
intended to treat Type
2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths
during the third quarter of 2009."
Well, I am not really all that clear that Actos is that much safer. They are both TZDs after all, and they work by the same mechanism. The fact that some studies displayed these risks for Avandia, while none have been observed for Actos may simply relfect the lack of adequate studies of the matter.
I understand from my Diabetes Educator, that the study done on Avandia, was paid for by Actos, so how much can we trust what it says. As stated below how different is Actos to Avandia? I’m very interested in this as my Doctor just starte me on Advandia. I do not have any history of heart problems. Thanks for your info.
If Actos paid for the Avandia study this reminds me of the old Slovak saying that when you dig the grave of your enemy be careful not to fall in yourself. To my mind this would have been incredibly stupid of them unless they are 100% certain that Actos does not do the same thing.
It was announced that Actos has serious side effects which are bladder cancer and heart disease which many were suffering from pain, actually. Hundreds of patients has been reported that they file for actos lawsuit against the manufacturer to claim for compensation for billing medication. Nevertheless, there are some diabetic person who still took actos.
I had three elderly diabetic uncles who died within a year of each other because of enlarged hearts. All were on Avandia. No one in our family previously had a heart problem. All followed their doctors' instructions religiously and were seen by a doctor regularly. The last one who succumbed died a week after his doctor claimed he was healthy as a horse. I cannot determine that Avandia was ever much benefit to any of them, either.
Avandia has been taken off the market. I also stopped taking Actos about 1.5 years ago.
Avandia (Rosiglitazone) was also used by the majority of the intensively treated arm in the ACCORD study which was stopped because of excess mortality. Further studies of the causes of the greater death rate ruled out insulin or hypoglycemia, but I've never seen an analysis completed showing whether or not Avandia had a role in the deaths.
Sadly, this drug not only harmed a lot of people directly, but it may well have played a role in the now loosened standards of care which actually recommend that elderly diabetics maintain an A1c of 8%.
