A recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Read Article) found that patients using Avandia have a 43% greater risk of suffering a heart attack and a 64% greater risk of dying from a cardiovascular event while taking Avandia than those not using Avandia. These findings were based upon 42 studies involving 15,560 patients who took Avandia and 12,283 who took other drugs or were given placebo. The study, conducted by doctors at the renowned Cleveland Clinic, presents important concern, as diabetics are already prone to heart disease.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert in May 2007 warning of the increased risk of heart attack and cardiac events leading to death. Since the alert, the FDA has asked Avandia?s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, to place the most serious warning a drug label can bear, a ?black box? warning, on the drug (Read the FDA news release.).