The country has learned to listen to Dr. Nissen. He was among the first doctors to raise questions about the cardiovascular safety of Vioxx, the painkiller that Merck withdrew from the market in 2004.
Dr. Nissen says that his breakthrough came when he discovered “an obscure GlaxoSmithKline website in the U.K.” The company created that site after people sued it over its antidepressant Paxil, accusing it of burying information. Dr. Nissen’s Googling turned up the site, which was a “gold mine” of studies for his meta-analysis.
Even though I search the Web all the time, I couldn’t find the obscure site. But Dr. Nissen emailed me today that the site with the treasure trove of damning Avandia data is http://ctr.gsk.co.uk/welcome.asp.
It’s not just people taking Avandia who need to be concerned about Dr. Nissen’s report. Many people are also taking Avandia in combination drugs that have different names. As I describe them on my “Diabetes Medications” webpage, they are Avandamet, which is a combination of Avandia and metformin, and Avandaryl, a combination of Avandia and glimepiride, one of the sulfonylureas.
The big question is whether you should stop taking Avandia or one of these combinations now. None of the usual establishment figures is saying to do that on your own initiative. The best advice is probably to talk it over with your doctor.
“Patients using this drug should talk to their health care provider to determine the most appropriate course of action,” says a joint statement of the American College of Cardiology, American Diabetes Association, and American Heart Association.
You can read news reports on this breaking story elsewhere at HealthCentral.com. They include “Diabetes Drug Avandia Boosts Heart Attack, Death Risk: Study,” “U.S. reviewing risks of Glaxo diabetes drug,” and “Glaxo’s Avandia raises heart-death risk: study.”
I’ve never taken Avandia or one of the combinations that include it. The only diabetes medications I’ve ever taken are one of the sulfonylureas, metformin, and now Byetta. But if I were taking anything that had Avandia in it, I would call my doctor today. Assuming that I could get through, considering how many calls he must be juggling.
- Font size
- Email This
- Bookmark
- Thank you for your input
- Save
- RSS
- Report Abuse
What the community is saying...
The Link To The Vit C Article
Posted 10/01 Comments (1)
I am so sorry, I forgot to include that link in my...
