The Food and Drug Administration requested that Avandia’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline, add the strongest warnings about fatal heart attacks among users of the medication in 2007. Now, Public Citizen is highlighting liver problems from taking the diabetes type 2 drug Avandia, which is also known as rosiglitazone.
Data published in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety indicates that at least 11 people taking Avandia died of acute liver failure after using the medication for less than half a year. Public Citizen has asked regulators to recall Avandia and seems poised to do so again. The group’s acting director, Dr. Sidney Wolfe, said, “The research is yet another indication that Avandia is too dangerous to remain on the market.”
While GSK denies that Avandia raises patients’ risks for heart disease or death, both the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes now recommend that doctors not prescribe Avandia.
While defending victims of medical malpractice over the past 20-plus years, I have learned how much people trust their doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers to give them only the best care and the safest medications. When that trust is violated, patients need to have legal protections.
About the Editors: Shapiro & Appleton& Duffan personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), near the Northeast North Carolina (NC) border. Lawyers with the firm practice primarily in the southeastern U.S. and handle injury law cases, including car, truck and railroad accidents, medical negligence cases, and more. The firm’s website is hsinjurylaw.com. Lawyers with Shapiro & Appleton& Duffan also edit the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard and have compiled a video library covering many FAQs on personal injury subjects. The firm’s lawyers are licensed in VA, NC, SC, WV, DC and KY.
EJL