[Diabetes-talk] News about diabetes medication.

[Michael Park]

  I wondered if you had David Mendosa's web site? I think it used to be 
Mendosa.com but I have mislaid the web address. The web site is a very 
good web site.

Michael Park
"I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16 NKJV).

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On 2010/10/04 03:22, Mike Freeman wrote:
> Yeah; David Mendosa says that the FDA is going to pull avandia from 
> the market shortly.
>
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Park" <pageforpage at gmail.com>
> To: "Michael Park" <pageforpage at hotmail.com>
> Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 2:20 PM
> Subject: [Diabetes-talk] News about diabetes medication.
>
>
>  The article that follows, reminds me of a documentary program
> broadcast some time ago, concerning the introduction of new medications
> to the market. The program concerned, dealt with the specific instance
> of a drug that was introduced to the market and which was aimed at
> dealing with Rheumatoid Arthritus. As apparently often happens with new
> drugs, companies are so eager to get them out into the market that not
> all of the safeguards for trials are adhered to, or in some instances,
> the drug is launched wiwith some of the safeguards even being absent
> altogether.
>
> In the Rheumatoid Arthritus case, some of the results of experiments
> carried out, were never disclosed with the result that when it came to
> later trials actually involving human beings, if my memory serves me
> right, 3 people died while 9 others were rendered invaleed as a result
> of participating in experiments with the drug. The diabetes medication
> mentioned in the article below, seems to be subject to the same fate.
>
> I am publishing this article here in its entirety, just below the link
> in case some of my readers have problems accessing the internet to look
> up the story for themselves.
>
> Fears over safety of diabetes drug.
>
> September 26, 2010 at 11:33am.
> By Melanie Peters.
>
> Source:
> http://tinyurl.com/36gqm44
>
> The present link is a shortened form of the original link which was
> created by
> http://www.tinyurl.com
>
> South African health authorities are investigating the risks of a
> diabetes drug that was taken off the shelves in Britain last week and
> has had restrictions placed on its use in the US.
>
> The European Medicines Agency also announced it was suspending the
> drug’s licence after a safety review, which means doctors can no longer
> prescribe it in Europe.
>
> Patients have been advised to see their doctors.
>
> British newspapers reported that the drug Avandia, also known as
> rosiglitazone, taken by 100 000 diabetic Britons, had been banned
> because it was believed to increase the risk of heart attacks.
>
> Avandia was launched 10 years ago as a new way to reduce blood sugar in
> patients with type 2 diabetes.
>
> The Medicines Control Council said it had been registered as a medicine
> in South African since 2002.
>
> Council registrar Mandisa Hela said: “The risk-benefit ratio of
> rosiglitazone is being assessed by the council and its
> pharmaco-vigilance expert committee. But no decision (to ban the drug)
> has been reached yet.”
>
> Last week Britain’s Daily Mail reported that there had been mounting
> concern about Avandia. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration,
> which does not have the legal power to suspend the drug, has also
> slapped further restrictions on its use.
>
> Avandia was once one of the best-selling drugs in the world, with annual
> sales peaking at R33 billion in 2006. Last year British doctors wrote a
> million prescriptions for it.
>
> The BMJ (British Medical Journal) earlier this month called for Avandia
> to be withdrawn on safety grounds and doctors urged authorities to
> withdraw the drug – used by as many as 100 000 patients.
>
> The BMJ said the drug increased the risk of heart attacks and should
> never have been licensed in Britain.
>
> Made by the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, it used to be the
> company’s second biggest- selling drug, raking in about R21 billion a 
> year.
>
> But sales plunged when the US linked it to heart attacks in 2007.
>
> And in July, Bloomberg News in the US said GlaxoSmithKline had made
> headlines when it agreed to pay about R420m to resolve a majority of the
> lawsuits alleging Avandia had caused heart attacks and strokes.
>
> In a statement, GlaxoSmithKline’s chief medical officer Ellen Strahlman
> said: “Our primary concern continues to be patients with type 2
> diabetes, and we are making every effort to ensure that physicians in
> Europe and the US have all the information they need to help them
> understand how these regulatory decisions affect them and their 
> patients.”
>
> She said the company continues to believe that Avandia was an important
> treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes. It said it would work
> closely with regulatory agencies. - Weekend Argus.
>