Controversy spikes over anti-diabetes drug Avandia

AFP, June, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Controversy over diabetes drug Avandia heated up Wednesday as experts pointed to studies linking it to greater heart attack risk, while a GSK study claimed rosiglitazone is safe.

The GlaxoSmithKline study published online Tuesday by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) gave preliminary results of a four-year clinical study of 4,446 patients showing Avandia did not increase the rate of heart attacks or death.

Among the sub-group of patients who took Avandia, 29 died from heart attacks, against 35 who died from a control group taking two other drugs for adult-onset, type 2 diabetes, GSK said in the study.

In a study that analyzed 42 clinical trials published May 21 by NJEM, eminent cardiologist Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic, in...