Avandia Heart Attack In The News

Dr. Robert Califf, the respected Duke University cardiologist and head of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, is a possible candidate for FDA commissioner.

Drug companies are putting a positive spin on papers published in the medical literature relative to what they submitted to the FDA for drug approval. The result is that doctors are using potentially misleading information when making prescriptions.

The regulatory agency is alerting diabetes-drug makers, like Amylin, of new heart-safety data standards.

A Hagerstown doctor said a report released Monday, linking a diabetes drug to a higher rate of congestive heart failure, validates concerns she and a colleague raised about nine years ago.

The type 2 diabetes epidemic that continues to sweep across the United States has left an estimated 24 million Americans struggling with the disease, up more than 3 million people since 2005. Doctors are trying to reverse the tide in two ways.

By Julie Steenhuysen

Study results published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine provided more bad news for Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes pill.

Older diabetics who took GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia to control their blood sugar had a higher risk of death and heart failure while on the drug than those who took Takeda Pharmaceutical's Actos, a drug in the same class, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

A similar diabetes drug, Actos, doesn't seem to carry same dangers, study finds.

By Julie Steenhuysen