The Boston Globe published an interesting article this morning on a clinical trial underway for diabetes drug Avandia. Seventeen physicians are in the process of recruiting patients for a trial that would look at the increased risk of heart attack that has been reported to be associated with the drug. According to the article:

Many specialists — including some officials within the FDA — contend that the drug is too dangerous to remain on the market and that the ongoing Avandia clinical trial is unethical, exposing patients to needless risk of cardiovascular harm.

But the drug has its defenders ... who say it has not been proven to be harmful. The clinical trial, they say, promises to provide answers about the drug, which has been on the market for more than a decade and last year was prescribed more than 2 million times in the United States.

As the Globe article notes, the controversy over Avandia “demonstrates how ... the FDA is still struggling to find the correct response when evidence emerges that big-selling drugs are unsafe.”

What do you think? Should the FDA continue with the trial?

 
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