GSK Should Probably Get Some Insiders in the FDA
It is becoming clear the gods of pharmaceutical industry hate GlaxoSmithKline with a passion. As if the drug producer wasn’t having enough problems with Advair, its apparently counterproductive asthma drug, intense controversy continues to brew in the FDA over GSK’s diabetes pill, Avandia. While the administration hasn’t come down one way or the other on the subject, several FDA studies have determined that Avandia causes hundreds of unnecessary heart attacks each year, and that it should be taken off the market entirely. These reports also point to the fact that diabetics could easily get the same treatment and avoid the ridiculous possibility of heart failure simply by switching to a comparable drug, Actos. [NY Times]
Advair, Avandia, Actos. Why does every newsworthy drug this week start with an A? The obvious answer: the FDA is so backlogged in reviews, it hasn’t made it past the first letter of the alphabet.
-Michael B. Sauter
[...] of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world – make the news for something other than a scandal these days, but that’s exactly what happened last week when the drugmakers announced a [...]
[...] there was Advair, the asthma drug that worsened the condition with prolonged use, then there was Avandia, the diabetes drug which has been shown to cause heart attacks. Now, there is GSK’s vaccine [...]