Most diabetic patients in state taken off Avandia

07/31/2007- Most Colorado diabetics who were using Avandia, a drug that controls blood-sugar levels, were taken off it two months ago when a scientific article pointed to increased risks of heart problems.

On Monday, a federal panel recommended that a warning label be put on Avandia but said it should stay on the market even though there is some evidence that it increases the risk of heart attack.

"Most endocrinologists in Colorado advised family practitioners and internists to switch their patients" to a different drug - Actos - in May, when an article appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, said Dr. Mel Stjernholm, president of the Colorado chapter of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

The great majority of the doctors agreed a switch would be best, he said.

Some Colorado diabetics who had shown no indication of heart trouble were left on Avandia, Stjernholm said, because as with many drugs, "the benefits seemed to outweigh the risks."

Avandia and Actos control blood-sugar levels in diabetics by increasing the body's sensitivity to insulin, and both have been implicated in heart failure.

In the most recent published study, Avandia was linked to heart attacks. Several other studies, however, found no increased heart attack risk in patients taking the drug.

Almost 221,000 people have been diagnosed with diabetes in Colorado, according to the Colorado Diabetes Prevention and Control Program.

The patient representative on the advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration said the recommendation by a federal scientist that Avandia be taken off the market went too far.

"We're being asked today to take a very Draconian action based on studies that have very significant weaknesses and are inadequate for us to make that kind of decision," said Rebecca Killion, a Bowie, Md., diabetic.

Some 16 million Americans with Type II, obesity-related diabetes have taken either Actos or Avandia since they hit the market in 1999. About half of Coloradans with Type II diabetes were taking one or the other, Stjernholm said