USFDA recommended suspension of Avandia sales in February, but no action was taken.  Looks like Saudi Arabia is taking the lead on this one. 

Don't bother trying to find this on Google Health, by the way...InteractMD.com readers hear it first!

Glaxo tried to breathe new life into a drug clearly in trouble if anything that sells $1 billion worth per year can be said to be in trouble. This week's Lancet reports a new clinical trial of diabetics treated with Avandia where cardiovascular risk was no worse with the drug. In 2007 reports of cardiovascular side effects led many to question the use of the medicine and sales were cut in half. Glaxo sponsored the study. The editorial in the journal cited "limitations" of the study. This is the first time I can remember so much criticism of a randomized clinical trial.

A new study published in the December 10 online issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal reports that continued use of well known oral diabetes GlaxoSmithKline's drugs Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) almost doubles the risk of bone fractures in women with type 2 diabetes. Researchers had been aware that two thiazolidinedione (TZD) drugs for diabetes were correlated with fractures but the scope of the risk was not known. That is the reason why a study was constituted to know the efficacy of the diabetes drug. The lead researcher Dr.

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