Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The diabetes drug Avandia will no longer be sold at retail pharmacies beginning in November because of the serious health risks it poses to patients. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted to severely restrict use of Avandia and related drugs last fall after studies showed that users with type 2 diabetes who took the drug were at a 40 percent increased risk of heart attack. Beginning in November, patients will only be able to get the drug by mail order from certified pharmacies participating in a special agency-supported program.

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New warnings for the type 2 diabetes drug rosiglitazone, better known by the brand name Avandia, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The warnings, including a black box warning, will be immediately added to the safety labeling and packaging for Avandia (rosiglitazone maleate), as well as other drugs with the same active ingredient, including Avandament (rosiglitazone maleate/metformin hydrochloride), and Avandaryl (rosiglitazone maleate/glimepride).

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GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has agreed to pay more than $250 million to resolve about 5,500 claims that its type 2 diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) caused heart attacks and strokes in patients who used the drug. The payout will help GSK avoid the first trial over claims the pharmaceutical giant allowed the drug to be marketed despite reports that the drug was potentially deadly.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted today not to remove the Type 2 diabetes drug Avandia from the market, despite studies that indicate the medication puts users at an elevated risk for cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke. But the agency did put tight restrictions on prescriptions of the drug. Meanwhile, European drug regulators announced today they will suspend the drug’s sales throughout Europe.

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The fate of the diabetes drug Avandia will likely be decided soon by an expert panel that has spent the past two days reviewing evidence that linked the drug to serious cardiovascular events and whether its developer and manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), influenced the results of a study asserting the safety of Avandia.

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Results of a clinical study announced in New Orleans recently appeared to exonerate Avandia from long-held suspicions that the drug causes adverse cardiovascular events in patients undergoing treatment for diabetes 2. Many doctors and other critics, however, say that the study is flawed and remain unconvinced of the findings. Financial analysts believe the results will likely give GlaxoSmithKline’s one-time blockbuster drug a sales boost.

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Consumer watchdog group Public Citizen released a petition on Thursday calling for an immediate ban on GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes drug Avandia. In a petition addressed to Commissioner Dr. Von Eschenbach of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Public Citizen urged the ban based on trial data revealing the drug’s “multiple, serious risks.”

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A UK newspaper reported yesterday that drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) – the second largest pharmaceutical company in the world – will cut 150 or more scientists and support staff positions.

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GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia is once again making the headlines after it was revealed that the peer reviewer looking at the now-notorious meta-analysis on the diabetes drug’s safety profile leaked a confidential copy of the article to the firm before it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine

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Older patients who took Avandia had a higher risk of heart attacks, congestive heart failure and death than those on other diabetes pills, according to a study of nearly 160,000 Canadians.

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