Avandia Injury Attorneys
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Avandia, generic rosiglitazone, has been one of the most popularly prescribed drugs for Type 2 diabetes since its approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1999. Combined with a healthy diet and exercise, Avandia is intended to improve blood sugar control in diabetic patients. Avandia has been the top-selling diabetes drug globally with sales exceeding $3 billion in 2006 alone. Type 2 diabetes affects some 20 million people in the United States alone, and, at the current time, approximately one million American patients are taking this dangerous drug.
For many years, research has shown Avandia to be linked to serious cardiovascular events in the diabetic patients taking the drug. Critics of Avandia allege that its labeling is inadequate in that it does not mention relevant safety and efficacy information. People with diabetes already have an increased risk of cardiac problems, so taking a drug that only increases that already-present risk could lead to deadly complications.
Potential Side Effects Associated with Avandia
· Cardiovascular event
· Liver toxicity
· Edema
· Weight gain
· Elevated lipids
· Low blood pressure
· Anemia
The FDA ordered GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Avandia, to carry a black-box warning, the most serious warning a prescribed drug can carry, due to the serious cardiovascular risks associated with it. This warning came a full one year after the FDA's safety reviewers strongly recommended this step.
The New England Journal of Medicine published an article in May 2007 warning that taking Avandia significantly increases your chances of a heart attack if you're a Type 2 diabetic taking the drug. After analysis of dozens of trials, it's been reported that Avandia increases the risk of a serious cardiovascular event by 43% and increases the risk of cardiac-related death by 64%. After this study was published, the FDA issued a public safety alert advising people taking Avandia to consult their doctors immediately regarding these cardiac risks.
History of Cardiac Concerns
Over seven years ago, the Chief of Endocrinology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote a letter to the FDA warning that Avandia showed "a worrisome trend in cardiovascular deaths and severe adverse events" in people taking the drug. Then, in July 2001, the FDA sent a letter to GlaxoSmithKline stating the company had been minimizing the drug's risks; the FDA asked Glaxo to send a letter to doctors warning them of the serious cardiac risks associated with the drug. After the FDA sent the warning letter to doctors, no other action was taken, and Avandia continues to be prescribed all over the globe.
Both Glaxo and the FDA have apparently known about the cardiovascular risks associated with the drug for over seven years but have not sufficiently warned prescribing doctors and consumers about the deadly effects of the drug. GlaxoSmithKline, because it sacrificed safety to profits, may be held liable for the suffering of those harmed by this Glaxo blockbuster.
If you or a loved one has taken Avandia and suffered a cardiovascular event or some other adverse reaction, please contact the Oklahoma City Pharmaceutical Claims Attorneys at Stipe Injury Law.
