Avandia: Avandia Leads to Debate at Diabetes Meeting

Diabetes experts and doctors debated the safety of diabetes drug Avandia at the American Diabetes Association's annual meeting in Chicago. GlaxoSmithKline's drug Avandia has been the center of controversy ever since an analysis published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that taking Avandia led to a 43 percent increase in heart attack risk and a 64 percent risk in the rise of heart death.

Glaxo's Avandia Stirs Debate at Diabetes Meeting

Dr. Steven Nissen, the researcher who conducted the analysis, defended his results: "What was the alternative? Not to know? The alternative was unacceptable: to keep the scientific community in the dark." However, many other researchers still disagree with the findings because Nissen based his conclusions on data collected in studies not designed specifically to look at heart attack risk. John Buse, the chief of endocrinology at the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, says, "if you take a study not designed to look at heart attacks, can you make a conclusion."