Skip to main content

GSK adds CHF boxed warning on Avandia label

GSK adds CHF boxed warning on Avandia label


Friday, August 17, 2007 10:00 IST 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

GlaxoSmithKline announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved updated US prescribing information for the thiazolidinediones (TZD) class of medicines used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. This approval allows GSK to implement changes in the label for Avandia (rosiglitazone maleate) as previously committed. 

The label will contain a boxed warning, which increases the prominence of an already existing warning for all medicines in the TZD class on the risk of congestive heart failure (CHF), a well known and well characterized risk in this class of medicine. The boxed warning also will note that TZDs are not recommended in patients with symptomatic heart failure, and that initiation of TZDs in patients with established NYHA class III or IV heart failure is contraindicated. 

The contraindications have also been updated regarding initiation of Avandia in patients with Nyha class III or IV heart failure. 

Information about CHF has been included in the prescribing information for Avandia since 1999, when the medicine was first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Since 2001, US prescribing information for Avandia has included a warning for "Cardiac Failure and Other Cardiac Effects" with a recommendation that use of Avandia be discontinued in patients if their cardiac status worsened. 

The changes related to CHF are being implemented on the labels of all rosiglitazone-containing products: Avandia, Avandamet (rosiglitazone maleate and metformin hydrochloride) and Avandaryl (rosiglitazone maleate and glimepiride). 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Isotretinoin in India: A tragedy in the offing

Isotretinoin in India: A tragedy in the offing Wednesday, March 28, 2007 08:00 IST  Seema Thakral Isotretinoin is the drug of choice for severe calcitrant cystic acne vulgaris, which often causes scarring and depression from disfigurement. Isotretinoin has been called "the greatest medical advance of the 1980's." A majority of patients with acne are permanently cleared after a four to five months course of treatment. It has also been used off-label for a variety of oncology uses including: cervical cancer, head and neck cancer, squamous cell cancer of the skin, juvenile chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), and neuroblastoma. However, the drug is a proved teratogen and carries a significant risk of birth defects, if it taken during pregnancy. Birth defects, which have been documented following isotretinoin exposure include abnormalities of the face, eyes, ears, skull, central nervous system, cardiovascular system, and thymus and parathyroid glands. There is an increased ris...

Combination Vaccine for Kids withdrawn

A vaccine that combines conventional MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) with Chikenpox has been withdrawn in the United States due to a higher rate of seizures in children. In a study children aged 12 to 23 months who received the combined MMR cum Chickenpox vaccine had double the rate of seizures compared to children who got separate vaccine for MMR and chickenpox. This equates to one additional case of convulsion per 2000 vaccinations.

BE guidelines regarding investigator

BE guidelines recommend investigator should possess appropriate medical qualification, experience for conducting pharmacokinetic studies Can chairperson of EC directly write to sponsor to clarify some of the queries of clinical trial raised in EC meeting? Dr. Sreevatsa Please see an extract from FDA's comment on IRB-sponsor relationship. The interrelationship and interaction between the research sponsor (e.g., drug, biologic and device manufacturers), the clinical investigator and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) may be very complex. The regulations do not prohibit direct sponsor-IRB contacts, although, the sponsor-IRB interaction customarily occurs through the investigator who conducts the clinical study. The clinical investigator generally provides the communication link between the IRB and the sponsor. Such linkage is agreed to by the sponsors and investigators when they sign forms FDA-1571 and FDA-1572, respectively, for drug and biologic studies or a...