Important Avandia® Patient Alert
February 2010
Safety reviewers from the FDA are urging a recall of the drug Avandia® due to increased risk of heart attacks.
This comes after a two year congressional hearing into the safety of Avandia® which concluded alleging that GlaxoSmithKline knew the drug may cause Heart Damage several years before a medical study documented the reports. According to two US Senators, the company pressured doctors into retracting warnings about the side effects.
If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured Due to Avandia® - Take Action Now.
Avandia® Patient Deaths
Avandia® is a drug that is intended to help the nearly 20 million people in the United States manage their type 2 diabetes, and it is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. The drug was successful for a period of time, but eventually it ran into serious problems relating to its alleged link to dangerous side effects.
The drug was originally approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing and sale in 1999, and it enjoyed enormous sales for several years.
However, problems were soon encountered, prompting the FDA to act and defective drugs lawyers to get involved in an attempt to handle the problems.
The Alleged Side Effects of Avandia®
According to a growing number of reports, some patients who had been taking Avandia® began to experience symptoms and side effects that included the following:
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
- Dizziness
- Heart attacks
- Heart failure
As a result, GlaxoSmithKline, at the behest of the FDA, began to perform new analyses of the drug and to reopen previous studies to take a closer look at the danger. The specific action taken by the FDA was to release a Public Health Warning that reported the results of studies and other incidents where patients had suffered as a result of taking the drug.
At this point, those studies are still ongoing, and until such time as a conclusion is reached Avandia® will remain on the market.The only preliminary results made available to the FDA have shown that those who use Avandia® on a short-term basis, meaning six months or less, showed an increased risk of heart-related problems by a factor of 30 to 40 percent.
What you should Do
If you have been taking Avandia® to help with your type 2 diabetes, you need to contact your doctor immediately to discuss the risks involved with the continuation of your Avandia® protocol.What you should not do is simply stop taking the medication, as type 2 diabetes requires ongoing management and treatment in order to prevent it from becoming worse, which it can do quickly without the aid of an effective medication. However, if you are at risk, your doctor can help you formulate a plan to use a different drug to maintain that management of your health.
If you have been harmed as a result of using Avandia® , you need to contact a defective drugs attorney as soon as possible to schedule a free initial consultation. You may have legal rights and options at your disposal, but you need answers before deciding how to proceed.
