Major diabetes drug under review
A drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes is being closely examined in both the United States (US) and Australia after a US Senate report released last weekend highlighted safety concerns about the drug.
A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said it had strengthened warnings about the drug’s side effects several times since 2007.
As of October last year, there were around 80,000 Australians using the drug.
The US Senate report said that the company GlaxoSmithKline knew of possible heart attacks tied to Avandia – also known generically as rosiglitazone in Australia – years before the evidence became public.
US Senators involved in the report asked the US Food and Drug Administration why it allowed a clinical trial of Avandia to continue even after the agency estimated that the drug caused 83,000 heart attacks between 1999 and 2007.
The deputy president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Steve Hambleton, told The Age newspaper he was confident that the TGA would manage safety concerns appropriately.
“If people are worried about continuing to take the drug they should talk to their doctors about it,” he said.
