Is Avandia the next Vioxx?

During the 5 year time period between 1999-2004 Vioxx managed to kill 24.600-55.600 people. The drug was marketed by the Merck Corporation for conditions like chronic pain and osteoarthritis. There is now good evidence that Merck knew of these dangers long before the drug was terminated and decided in spite of that to continue to sell it. 3 years before Merck pulled the Drug, they did a study on the safety of Vioxx called APPROVe. When the preliminary studies showed that Vioxx users were twice as likely to have a heart attack Merck's response is unbelievable. Merck decide not to follow the leads but instead they terminate the study. The APPROVe study was not the only study where there were evidence of Vioxx causing heart attacks. Pre approval trials came up with a staggering 8-fold increase in heart attacks. Now in a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine. The anti-diabetic drug Avandia (marketed by GlaxoSmithKline) is being linked to a 45% increase in heart attacks. Is Avandia the next Vioxx? Let us hope not. Links http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18783816 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=akBQMrO_tE0g&refer=uk http://www.forbes.com/home/sciencesandmedicine/2007/05/21/avandia-gsk-diabetes-biz-sci_cx_mh_0521glaxo.html