The attack on Avandia is really an attack on the FDa's authority wrapped up in a bogus concern about the risk of cardiovascular death associated with diabetes. Treatment of type 2 diabetes requires management of many diseases that contribute to heart attacks. That includes managing high cholesterol which of course Avandia is associated with. So it would seem logical to identify which patients on Avandia who had heart attacks were not on statins (something the FDA numbers crunchers did). Nissen and co simply gloss over this issue. But good diabetes management with respect to MI requires it. So why not make this an issue of improving CV outcomes instead of Avandia and the FDA?
See Gina Kolata's excellent article in the NYT from Aug 2007 to see how it can be done:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/health/20diabetes.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5070&en=f729f5b46fa2a74d&ex=1190174400
See Gina Kolata's excellent article in the NYT from Aug 2007 to see how it can be done:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/health/20diabetes.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5070&en=f729f5b46fa2a74d&ex=1190174400
