Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Study doesn't calm Avandia fears
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 6, 2007
The maker of the controversial diabetes pill Avandia pointed to early results of its own study Tuesday, saying they offered reassuring evidence the drug doesn't raise heart risks. However, outside experts called the results inconclusive at best and a sign of greater risk at worst. The study compares Avandia and two other diabetes pills in nearly 4, 500 people around the world. Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC released results of the first few years of a six-year study showing similar rates of heart-related deaths and hospitalizations among those on Avandia vs. those on the other drugs. But some doctors said the results showed slightly more heart problems with Avandia - a bad sign even if the difference was so small that it could have occurred by chance alone. They also contend there are problems with the way the study was done. "This study, which was designed to show the benefit of rosiglitazone (Avandia), if anything shows the opposite, " said Dr. David Nathan, chief of diabetes care at Massachusetts General Hospital, who has no role in the study and has received speaker fees from Glaxo and other drug companies. A congressional panel will hold a hearing today on its risks and the response by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
[Last modified June 6, 2007, 00:51:50]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Letter to the editor
