Diabetes drug increases the heart attack risk

The drug rosiglitazone increases the risk of heart attack in diabetes.

(28.06.2010) From the beginning, the drug with the active ingredient "Rosiglitazone" was critically eyed by doctors and scientists. The medicine should help lower the blood sugar level of diabetes patients. The drug should lower the "HbA-1C value" and increase sensitivity to insulin. Many patients had hopes for their health when they introduced the medicine. Because the drug should be mainly prescribed to elderly diabetes patients who could not be adequately adjusted despite diet, exercise and the drug "metformin".

But the benefit of the drug is questionable, as many researchers say. Because the drug does not show the promised effect for the patient. In addition, the drug increases the risk of a heart attack. This is doubly bad, as diabetes patients already have an increased risk of heart disease anyway.

First study confirms the assumption of lack of benefit and increased heart attack risk.
Scientists at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation have now taken a closer look at the active substance rosiglitazone (trade name: "Avandia", as a combination drug with the active ingredient metformin "Avandamet") in a study. The data of the pharmaceutical company Glaxo-Smithkline were also compared. Overall, the physicians evaluated the data from 35531 patients with and without Rosiglitazone award. It has been observed that the risk of heart attack in patients receiving rosiglitazone increased from 28 to 39 percent.

Critical voices could be heard some time ago. The New York Times reported that in the third quarter of 2009 alone, the drug rosiglitazone had caused 304 deaths. That was stated in an internal study by the US government. Therefore, the agency proposed to withdraw the drug immediately from the market. Now the US Food and Drug Administration wants to decide in July whether rosiglitazone will be taken off the market. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation emphasize that there is no longer any justification for prescribing this drug to patients. "To continue prescribing this remedy is really difficult to justify," said a study author at the Cleveland Clinic. The drug does not meet the promised benefit and increases the heart attack risk to a degree that should not be underestimated. (Sb)