Diabetes Drug Could Raise Risk of Heart Attack

WASHINGTON - The Senate report on the diabetes drug Avandia says both GlaxoSmithKline and the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency America since the beginning should have warned consumers about the side effects of the drug, instead of now. The report recommended that Avandia be withdrawn from circulation.

In 2007, a researcher, Dr. Steven Nissen, publishes research results that showed Avandia increased the risk of heart attack by 43 percent and Avandia users face the risk of death greater than 64 percent who did not use the drug. "We had warned the side effects that started two and a half years ago. There is no reason for doctors to continue prescribing the drug. It's about time the drug was withdrawn," said Nissen.

Yet doctors continue to prescribe Avandia to hundreds of thousands of patients around the world. Dr. Yasser Ousman from the General Hospital Center of Washington to prescribe drugs for a number of potential patients with diabetes and for patients with early stage diabetes. According to him there are a number of drugs to the patients tested, including Avandia. In fact, he said, Avandia is effective in maintaining blood sugar levels, and slows the patients affected by diabetes.

But Nissen again warned the side effects of Avandia. "The most disturbing me is that every month more and more people suffering from the drugs that are not needed that," he said. Nissen reports on the results of 42 clinical trials showed an association between Avandia and heart problems. But Yasser Ousman said that based on information and statistics from the early research Nissen in 2007, the risk of heart problems in the research was actually small.

Studies on the use of Avandia GlaxoSmithKline funded and published last year found there was no increase in risk of heart attacks in users of the drug. However, these studies found no increase in risk of heart failure in Avandia users because the heart is not enough blood to organs or muscles. In some cases, the patient should be hospitalized or died.

Agency U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would examine the links Avandia and heart problems. Agency panel of experts is scheduled to meet in July. The agency warned that Avandia users do not stop this medicine unless the doctor orders.