Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSLI16832820090818
Glaxo's Avandia riskier than Takeda drug -study
Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:01pm EDT
LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc's diabetes drug Avandia is associated with an increased risk of heart failure and death among older patients compared with Takeda's Actos, according to Canadian research.
David Juurlink and colleagues of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto said their findings -- the latest in a string of studies questioning Avandia, or rosiglitazone -- made it hard to justify using the medicine for most patients.
"Given the accumulating evidence of harm with rosiglitazone treatment and the lack of a distinct clinical advantage for the drug over pioglitazone (Actos), it is reasonable to question whether ongoing use of rosiglitazone is justified," they wrote in the British Medical Journal.
Sales of Avandia, once Glaxo's second biggest-selling product, plummeted two years ago after a U.S. study linked it to an increased risk of heart attack in a conclusion disputed by Glaxo.
The Canadian study, however, found no significant difference in the risk of heart attack between Avandia and Actos.
