{"id":9860,"date":"2010-08-25T10:42:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=9860"},"modified":"2015-12-29T08:28:12","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T13:28:12","slug":"actos-as-dangerous-as-avandia-new-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=9860","title":{"rendered":"Actos as Dangerous as Avandia, New Study Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The continuing controversy surrounding the cardiovascular risk of GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes drug Avandia has led to sharp declines in its use and a surge in sales of the competing drug, Actos. Although the drugs are similar and both had FDA warnings<\/a> in 2007, Takeda’s Actos has been perceived to be safer for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n

Avandia (Rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) belong to the same class of drugs, called TZDs or thiazolidinediones. They help the body use insulin more effectively by boosting the body\u2019s sensitivity to the hormone and thus help control blood sugar.<\/p>\n

The new study evaluated more than 36,000 diabetes patients. Of the 28,938 patients who were propensity-score matched, a methodology used to provide an estimation of treatment-effects that is as unbiased as possible, <\/em>602 patients taking rosiglitazone and 599 taking pioglitazone over a 33-month period suffered either a heart attack, heart failure, both, or died. This translates to about 4 percent of all patients taking either medication. The individual specific adverse events were also not significantly different between the two groups, and were:<\/p>\n

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