Avandia To Be Pulled From Retail Shelves

Avandia is one of the diabetes drugs and, for a long time now, it has been known to increase the risks of heart attacks

On Tuesday it was announced that the diabetes drug Avandia will be pulled from the pharmacy shelves starting November, as it poses such high risks of heart attacks.

According to the statements made on Tuesday, starting from November, only certified doctors will be able to prescribe the drug Avandia to patients who will have been announced in advanced about the risks they take if they decide to use the drug. The patients will be able to get their drugs by having their prescriptions ordered by mail through specific pharmacies. “It’s like a decade-long nightmare coming to an end,” said Steven Nissen, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. He went on saying that after 11 years since the drug got on the market, it will be virtually impossible for people to get it.

Avandia is the trade name of the drug called rosiglitazone, which is also sold as component for medicine such as Avandamet and Avandaryl. According to Bernadette King, of GlaxoSmithKline, the drug’s maker, in December 2010, there mere more than 90,000 people who used the drug. Back in 2007, Nissen published an analysis which showed that Avandia was very harmful, as it increased the risks of heart attacks by 40 percent in people who suffered from type 2 diabetes. It’s like it was not enough that people suffering from diabetes already had their risks of heart attacks really high. The report also contained information related to the fact that Avandia had caused heart problems, including deaths, in 66,000 to 200,000 people.

The FDA will limit the use of Avandia to people who have already been treated with the drug and to people who control their sugar with other medicine. Also, the drug will also be purchasable by people who prefer using the drug, even though they know about its consequences. “I think it’s a reasonable approach,” said David Holmes, of the Mayo Clinic, president of the American College of Cardiology. Although the process took the FDA about a year and even though there were many people who criticized them for not taking a stand earlier, it is still good that the drug will be pulled from the shelves starting November. As said before, the drug that has caused so many problems to people already suffering from a terrible disease such as diabetes will only be prescribed to people who will be fully aware of its effects and who will be able to get it through mail order.11