posted by on Feb 21
Avandia Class Action Over Side Effects
An Avandia class action is brewing since release this week of a Senate investigation into the popular Diabetes drug. Confidential federal reports link Avandia to heart attacks and heart failures, and over three hundred deaths in the last three months of 2009.
Avandia is a drug made by GlaxoSmithKline for treatment of Diabetes Type 2. The drug has been controversial for years, as some reports held by the Feds link Avandia side effects to heart failure and heart attacks. But only this week has the idea of an Avandia class action hit the news, because of the Senate investigation.
Results of the investigation are that GlaxoSmithKline should have warned patients who take Avandia about the serious side effects. Scientists from the FDA even advocate removing Avandia from the market. There is an alternative, called Actos, which has not been associated with such serious side effects.
Avandia has been linked to 500 heart attacks and 300 heart failures each month. Reports as far back as 2007 from studies conducted on patients taking Avandia show links to heart problems from the drug. In 2006, sales of Avandia produced for GlaxoSmithKline $3.2 billion. After the 2007 study, profits decreased for Avandia, which had once been one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world.
The main point of the Avandia class action is that GlaxoSmithKline failed to put warnings on the label about the serious side effects.