Thursday doctors said that, despite the recent bad news surrounding the diabetes drug Avandia, patients should stick to taking the medication since the consequences of discontinuing the drug could be worse than the drug’s side effects.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been investigating allegations that GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes drug Avandia, sold generically as rosiglitazone, may increase the risk of heart attack.
Groups of doctors said the FDA raised legitimate concerns over Avandia’s potentially harmful side effects, but the panel qualified its statement by writing that the diabetes drug did not raise the number of deaths associated with rosiglitazone.
The American Diabetes Association, the Endocrine Society and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists agreed patients should not abandon Avandia over fears of negative side effects.
“Patients should continue taking all currently prescribed medications unless instructed otherwise by their health care provider,” Dr. Robert Vigersky of the Endocrine Society said in a statement.
“Stopping diabetes medications can cause significant harm and result in higher levels of blood glucose that may cause severe short term health problems and could increase the risk of diabetes-related complications in the long term.”
The president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, Dr. Daniel Einhorn said, “the worst outcome would be to not treat diabetes properly, thereby risking its complications.”
“This unintended consequence has happened with past inquiries into diabetes medications, and we very much want to avoid it happening again,” Einhorn said.
