Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Calmer approach to Avandia : The Lancet

Since the NEJM paper ( see posting on 25 May 2007) was published on May 21, frightened diabetes patients flooded their doctors with calls, many patients have stopped taking Avandia or switched to a rival drug Actos although some experts caution there is no urgent need for diabetes patients to stop taking Avandia.

The Lancet published an editorial online on May 23, 2007 to point out that there are important weaknesses in Nisson's meta analysis and call for "a calmer and more considered approach to the safety of Rosiglitazone" in response to the alarm raised by Dr Steven Nisson in NEJM.

According to The Lancet, the 2 most reliable studies to inform decision-making are ADOPT (published by NEJM) and DREAM (published by The Lancet). Although the results of these studies "indicate the need for more reliable information about rosiglitazone's safety", patients should calm down and wait for the results of the RECORD trial, a multi-centre study designed to monitor cardiac risk.

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