FDA starts meeting on controversial diabetes drug - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

By Karin McCay| email

Edited by Kristin Beerman | email 

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) – Tuesday an FDA advisory committee kicked off a two-day meeting on the controversial diabetes drug Avandia, a blockbuster drug for Glaxo Smith Kline designed to treat type two diabetes.  In 2007 experts recommended stronger warnings for the drug after studies suggested it increased the risk for heart attack. However, the panel did not recommend pulling Avandia from the market.  Now new data provides stronger evidence that there may, in fact, be a risk for heart attack linked to the drug.  Experts from the drug company, FDA, and public are presenting before the FDA panel and they don't all have the same opinion.  FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg started the meeting with a word of advice for panel members.

"My advice is that you keep an open mind, apply your sharpest scientific thinking and bring your best judgment to the questions facing the agency," said Margaret Hamburg, M.D..

The FDA doesn't have to follow the advice of the panel, but they usually do. 

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