ClickCease Should Avandia Stay On The Market? | Medical Malpractice Law
Menu
07/17/10   |   By

Should Avandia Stay On The Market? | DC Metro Area Medical Malpractice Law Blog

5 stars

Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, founding partner

There is a great debate over whether Avandia should stay on the market in light of its risks.  The Wall Street Journal urges FDA to keep Avandia on the market. In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal (7/16) says that people who want GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia (rosiglitazone) to be removed from the market, as well those who maintain that it should still be available to patients with type 2 diabetes, were frustrated this week by an FDA advisory panel that voted to keep the drug on the market with tougher restrictions. The Journal notes that the FDA is under immense pressure to remove Avandia from the market, especially from FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s deputy chief Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, but the paper says that, hopefully, Hamburg will keep Avandia available, even just as a backup treatment.

Not everyone shares that view.  One columnist says the collusion between the government and  drugmakers is allowing Avandia to remain on the market.  Jon Carroll wrote in his San Francisco Chronicle (7/14, F8) column that if patients were offered two drugs, one which “has been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks and the other [which] hasn’t,” they would prefer the latter. He added, “My conclusion is that patients were not given that information by their doctors. My conclusion is that the clammy hand of GSK has urged the doctors to ignore the, ahem, ‘flawed and preliminary data’ and keep on pushing the Avandia.” Carroll argued that despite data suggesting that Avandia may be unsafe, the government is allowing it to remain on the market. He called this “lunacy,” and said that there was a “happy collusion between the government, drug companies and (some) private doctors.”

Before taking Avandia or any drug, speak to your doctor.  Your doctor is obligated to explain all risks and benefits of drugs he or she prescribes.  If safer drugs are available, they should be considered.

Do you have any questions about this post?

About the author:

Mr. Zambri is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Attorney and Past-President of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. He has been acknowledged by Washingtonian magazine as a “Big Gun” and among the “top 1%” of all of the more than 80,000 lawyers in the Washington metropolitan area. The magazine also acknowledged him as “one of Washington’s best–most honest and effective lawyers” who specializes in medical malpractice matters, product liability claims, and serious automobile accident claims. Mr. Zambri has also been repeatedly named a “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics magazine (2010)–a national publication that honors the top lawyers in America.

Mr. Zambri is regularly asked to present seminars to lawyers and doctors, as well as both medical and law students concerning medication errors, medical malpractice litigation, and safety improvements.

If you have any questions about your legal rights, please email Mr. Zambri at [email protected] or call him at 202-822-1899.

Regan Zambri Long
Posted In
Uncategorized
Share This Article

Schedule a Free Consultation

Have you or your loved one sustained injuries in Washington DC, Maryland or Virginia? Regan Zambri Long PLLC has the best lawyers in the country to analyze your case and answer the questions you may have.

Call 202-960-4596

  • Please do not send any confidential or sensitive information in this form. This form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting this form does not create an attorney-client relationship.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Back to Top