More Bad News About Actos and Avandia

Michael Phelan

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Diabetic macular edema (DME) is a condition in which the retina thickens and swells. DME can lead to blindness. A new study of more than 100,000 people which was presented Sunday at the Amercan Diabetes Association's annual meeting in San Diego concludes that people taking Actos or Avandia have a 3 to 6 times increased risk of developing diabetic macular edema.

Actos may also raise the risk of bladder cancer in patients who take the medicine more than a year, the FDA said in a June 16 safety announcement. The medicine has sales of 387.9 billion yen ($4.8 billion) in the fiscal year ended in March, according to Bloomberg data.

The treatment from Japan-based Takeda became the market leader after a 2007 study showed a 43 percent higher risk of heart attacks with Avandia from London-based Glaxo. Avandia’s sales declined to $680 million in 2010 after a high of about $3 billion. The FDA said in May that Glaxo’s medicine will be pulled from retail pharmacies in the U.S. and available only through a special program beginning in November.