Litigation

Fed Report Shows Diabetes Drug Avandia Can Kill You

By Angel Reyes

Recent reports by Dr. David Graham and Dr. Kate Gelperin show that GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia should be pulled from the market.  The reason?  It can kill you!

This comes as no surprise to many of us who have been filing cases against GlaxoSmithKline.  Avandia was once the best selling diabetes drug in the world.  In 2006, fueled by a mega-million dollar marketing campaign, Avandia sales hit $3.2 billion dollars a year.  Soon after hitting blockbuster sales records, reports by the Cleveland Clinic  suggesting the drug increased the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular problems caused the FDA  to issue a warning.  That warning, along with further negative studies, caused a precipitous drop in sales for Avandia.  Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of diabetics continued to take Avandia.

It gets worse.  For several years the US Senate has worked on a bipartisan investigation into Avandia and increased heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular risks.  The report from the investigation is highly critical of GlaxoSmithKline.  Indeed, the report says that Glaxo failed to warn patients that Avandia could kill them!  Further, the report goes on to say that Glaxo executives "attempted to intimidate independent physicians, focused on strategies to minimize or misrepresent findings that Avandia may increase cardiovascular risk, and sought ways to downplay findings that a competing drug [Actos] might reduce cardiovascular risk."

If you are one of the hundreds of thousands of diabetics still taking Avandia, consider talking to your physician and ask about Actos.  You just might save your life.
 

Full post as published by Angel Reyes Blog on February 21, 2010 (boomark / email).