Do you really think that GSK, the drug company, is interested in helping people to be healthy?

Do you really think that drug companies are interested in helping you to be healthy? - Surely not? - Are you not aware that they repeatedly appear in both the civil and the criminal courts as defendants in cases of fraud, bribery, corruption and the like? - That their only real interest is in profits and their only motivation is greed? - Check it out:

 

See last Monday's article on the BBC News Website, in which we read that "GlaxoSmithKline is to pay $3bn (£1.9bn) in the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history. The drug giant is to plead guilty to promoting two drugs for unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about a diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The settlement will cover criminal fines as well as civil settlements with the federal and state governments.
The case concerns 10 drugs, including Paxil, Wellbutrin, Avandia and Advair."

Did you know that the many well-honed skills of GSK include bribing doctors to prescribe antidepressant drugs off-label for children, knowing that these drugs can and do result in grave harm to children, including death? And did you know that Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours List? - Beggars belief, doesn't it? - It's not as if the fraudulent practices of this firm have only come to light recently. They have been reported and in the public domain for years. Why was the head of this huge criminal business recommended for a knighthood?

I've mentioned Andrew Witty previously in one of my blogposts. - See HERE. Would you feel safe taking drugs made and marketed by this company? -  Well I wouldn't.

If you take diabetes drug Avandia and missed Panorama's programme last Monday, I URGE you to watch it via iPlayer.

You can read in this BBC News report about the risks incurred by taking Avandia, a drug manufatcured by GlaxoSmithKline, but I urge you to watch the Panorama programme itself on iPlayer so that you have a fuller understanding of the seriousness of the risks to your health posed by taking this drug.

Drug companies are not in business for your health; they are in business for their profits. Their reassurances about the safety of their products cannot be trusted. They have a long, scandalous history of lies, evasions and corruption.

I have written about this drug before. If you click on the Avandia tag beneath this blogpost you will be able to read my earlier posts about it.

If you have already developed fluid retention/weight gain as a side-effect of taking Avandia or any other prescription drug, you can reduce this by seriously cutting down on salt and salty food.

If you take Avandia for type 2 diabetes, Panorama tonight has a programme about it (A Risk Worth Taking?) on BBC1

As BBC News reports, even though the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said Avandia's use should be suspended, it is still available on the NHS. Avandia is linked to increased risk of heart attacks and heart failure.

"Prof [Edwin] Gale, who chairs the European Medicines Agency scientific advisory group on diabetes, said Avandia should be withdrawn entirely.

"How long do you wait? How important is it to be absolutely certain and at what point do you start saying - this game isn't worth it, people's lives may be at risk, something should be done about it?" he said.

Clinical pharmacologist Dr Yoon Loke, of the University of East Anglia, said his analysis of the class of drug showed that it doubled the risk of heart failure, regardless of whether or not the patients were considered at high risk before they took the drug."

Criticism mounts on GSK re Avandia, its diabetes drug widely regarded as unsafe

See the Telegraph article. Incredibly Glaxo's response has been, ""Since 2007 we have seen results from six controlled clinical trials looking at the cardiovascular safety of Avandia. Together they show that this medicine does not increase the overall risk of heart attack, stroke or death."" - And the band played believe it if you like...

Glaxo playing the wide-eyed innocent sits oddly with the ghastly history of the usage of this drug, and the tactics, including intimidation, GSK have employed to try to suppress the facts about its adverse effects. You can read some of that history here: http://wildeaboutobesity.blogspot.com/search/label/Avandia.

Further attention drawn to health risks of GSK's diabetes drug, Avandia

See This is London article, where you will read that "David Graham, of the Food and Drug Administration, said patients taking the drug had a 27% greater chance of suffering a stroke, a 25% increased risk of heart failure and a 13% greater chance of dying."

Doubts are being raised about the safety of Glaxo's Avandia drug

See Wall Street Journal article with news about this diabetes drug.

There is a completely safe, effective, drug-free way to reduce diabetes problems. - If you avoid salt and salty food you will lose some excess weight and lower your high blood pressure. It is also good for your heart to eat less salt/sodium and it will lower your cholesterol level.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See also FAT RETENTION

Glaxo Intimidated Another Avandia Critic

The following paragraph is copied and pasted from Dr Rath's newsletter.

A ruckus erupted last year when reports surfaced that Glaxo was accused of intimidating John Buse, a University of North Carolina researcher who, years earlier, questioned the safety of its Avandia diabetes pill, which was linked to heart problems (back story). However, he wasn’t the only one the drugmaker tried to stifle. A doctor from a small Maryland hospital linked Avandia to congestive heart failure in 2000, but Glaxo rejected her warning and tried stop her from talking about it with other docs and hospitals, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Public Citizen Petitions FDA To Ban Glaxo’s Avandia

The consumer group wants the agency to have the diabetes pill yanked over deaths from liver failures and other life-threatening risks. In a statement, Public Citizen calls Avandia, which is used to treat Type Diabetes 2, “unacceptably dangerous,” and cites new research to justify its petition. The move comes after the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes last week both advised against using Avandia (look here and here).
Read article at pharmalot.com

Doctors demand freeze on use of diabetes drug for heart patients

SCOTTISH doctors have said there is "no defence" for the use of a widely prescribed diabetes drug after warnings that it should not be used in patients with heart problems, The Scotsman can reveal. The consultants, who work in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, recommend no new patients are given Avandia - also known as rosiglitazone.
Read article in The Scotsman (Scotland/UK

A commonly-prescribed drug, Avandia, for type 2 diabetes, may increase the risk of brittle bone disease, say researchers.

Diabetes drug link to weak bones

Extract from BBC News:

"A commonly-prescribed drug for type 2 diabetics may increase the risk of brittle bone disease, say researchers.

Tests on mice found that rosiglitazone (Avandia), which is used to boost the effects of insulin, could be interfering with new bone formation."

Amazing, isn't it? that GSK has reported better-than-expected first half results, when its drugs cause so much harm to the patients who take them...)o

Glaxo triumphs despite drug scares - Guardian

Diabetes drugs, Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone), are causing widespread heart failure.

Scientists link diabetes drugs to heart failure - Guardian

Extract:

"Two of the most commonly used drugs for diabetes, which were taken by hundreds of thousands of mostly overweight people in the UK last year, are causing widespread heart failure, scientists warn today.

Use of the drugs, prescribed by doctors for type II diabetes, has doubled in the past three years as a consequence of a growing obesity problem. Last year 1.8m prescriptions were written across the UK, which scientists say equates to several hundred thousand patients taking the drugs which are recommended for use across the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

But researchers today call on Nice to think again, revealing that as many as one in every 50 patients taking the drugs Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) over a period of 26 months will have to be hospitalised for heart failure.

The class of drugs, they say in the journal Diabetes Care, doubles the risk of heart failure, and even those with no history of heart problems are affected.

"This means that the diabetes drugs could have caused thousands of additional cases of heart failure, creating a substantial burden on hard-pressed NHS services," said Dr Yoon Loke, a clinical pharmacologist at the University of East Anglia who carried out the research with Wake Forest University in the US. "I think Nice should re-evaluate their decision to recommend these diabetes drugs."

Concerns about the safety of the drug were triggered in May when a leading US cardiologist published evidence of a link to heart attacks and death. The manufacturers strongly contested his study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But today's evidence will add urgency to a special meeting of the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which was already scheduled for Monday to discuss the safety of the drugs which are taken by 7 million people in the US.

Global sales of Avandia, made by the British company GlaxoSmithKline, have dropped by 22% in the US since the heart attack data was published in May, but are still worth £349m.
However, in Europe sales have continued to grow by 20% to £63m. Avandia is the company's second best-selling drug."

Most prescription drugs are harmful so only take them if it is really necessary, and always check what side-effects are listed for them. - But bear in mind that not all side-effects are listed...)o:

There is no need at all for overweight people ever to take 'slimming' drugs and dieting is ALWAYS harmful. - Obesity is caused by fluid retention not by overeating, and fluid retention can easily be reduced by eating less salt/sodium, so avoid eating salt and food containing salt.

You can lower your risk of heart attack and stroke, as well as many other illnesses, and lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...

Glaxo takes out newspaper ads to defend Avandia

Glaxo defends Avandia with newspaper ads

Extract:

"The ads, which appeared in newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, take the form of a letter to Avandia patients signed by Ronald Krall, chief medical officer of the world's second-largest drugmaker.

The unusual step comes a day before a scheduled U.S. congressional hearing on the Food and Drug Administrations role in evaluating the safety of Avandia, and a day after the first solid data became available on the medicine's eroding prescription numbers.

Avandia, known chemically as rosiglitazone, came under fire last month after an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested the type 2 diabetes treatment might raise the risk of heart attack by 43 percent and of cardiac-related death by 64 percent. The analysis, by a top U.S. cardiologist, Steven Nissen, drew on pooled data from 42 trials involving nearly 28,000 patients.

Glaxo has been on the defensive ever since, putting out news releases criticizing the so-called meta-analysis and methods used in reaching its conclusions and defending the safety of the $3.2 billion (1.6 billion pound) a year product; trotting out executives to discuss Avandia safety with the media; and publishing a letter in the Lancet medical journal saying large studies showed Avandia's cardiovascular safety to be comparable to other widely used diabetes treatments."

A little more about the dangers of the prescription drug, Avandia.

Warning on diabetes drug could be a replay of Vioxx - American Medical News

Extracts:

"Congress is urged to take steps to help avoid future drug safety issues as it moves toward passage of an FDA bill."

"The warning was posted by Steven Nissen, MD, chair of the Cleveland Clinic's Dept. of Cardiovascular Medicine, who analyzed 42 trials of rosiglitazone, which was approved by the FDA in 1999. Dr. Nissen and Cleveland Clinic statistician Kathy Wolski, MPH, found that the use of the drug was associated with an increased risk of heart attack and cardiovascular death -- by 43% and 64% respectively -- compared with placebo.

The findings represent a particular health concern, Dr. Nissen said, because more than 65% of deaths in diabetic patients are attributed to heart disease."

You can reduce both the risk of and the severity of type 2 diabetes, heart attack, heart disease, obesity and many other chronic, disabling diseases and health conditions by eating less salt.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

GlaxoSmithKline shares fell as doctors avoid prescribing Avandia, their diabetes drug.

GSK suffers as doctors avoid allegedly risky diabetes drug - Guardian

Extract:

"GlaxoSmithKline took another hit yesterday amid signs that doctors in the US were avoiding its blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia after a study linked it to increased risks of heart attacks and death.

Data from ImpactRX indicated that the drug's share of the market for newly prescribed oral anti-diabetics in the US fell to around zero from about 10% in the two days after the study was published on May 21st. ImpactRX, a market intelligence firm, tracks the impact of pharmaceutical promotion on the prescribing behaviour of physicians in the US.

A Deutsche Bank note, which highlighted the information, said: "This reaction is far worse than we had anticipated and suggests that there could be as much as 22% downside risk to GSK's near-term earnings, suggesting that there is still further downside to GSK's share price."

It added that switching rates, or patients moving from one drug to another, were currently three times their usual level.

Shares fell accordingly, closing down 28p, or 2.1%, at £13.06, having tumbled 9% last week following publication of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Avandia is GSK's second-biggest selling drug, with sales around £1.4bn last year."

An excellent non-drug measure people with diabetes can take is to reduce their intake of salt and salty food to a minimum. It really does make a big difference. This has the added benefit of reducing any excess weight and reducing high blood pressure and risk of stroke, etc. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Avandia is suspected of increasing risk of heart attacks.

Health alert over diabetes drug linked to heart risks - Guardian

Extract:

"A review of the safety of a diabetes drug used by millions of patients was launched in America last night after a study linked it to an increased risk of heart attacks.

Patients using Avandia, the brand name given by GlaxoSmithKline to rosiglitazone, ran a 45% higher risk of a heart attack than those using a placebo or alternative treatment, according to the results of the study published in a leading medical journal.

The US regulator the food and drug administration (FDA) responded by issuing a formal alert to doctors. And congressional leaders in Washington announced that the House oversight committee would hold hearings on GSK's handling of the drug next month.

GSK, the UK's leading pharmaceutical company, disputed the study's findings, arguing it was based on "incomplete evidence and a methodology that the author admits has significant limitations".

Avandia has been taken by more than 6 million people worldwide since it was licensed eight years ago. The drug is one of a group that lower blood glucose levels for people with type 2 diabetes - the late onset form of the disease which is linked to obesity. The FDA warned doctors to be aware of the study published online by the New England Journal of Medicine linking it to heart disease. "

Pharmaceuticals usually carry risks...)o: - You can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by eating less salt/sodium. And if you already have type 2 diabetes, you can improve your condition by eating less salt/sodium.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

A drug initially hailed by doctors as giving new hope to people who are at risk of diabetes should not be prescribed to them after all

Changes in lifestyle hold key to reducing risk of diabetes - Independent

This article contains such a lot of sense that ~I have quoted extensively from it. - It is rare to read such good sense on the subject of prescription drugs.

Extracts:

"A drug initially hailed by doctors as giving new hope to people who are at risk of diabetes should not be prescribed to them after all, experts will say today.

The drug, rosiglitazone, sharply reduces the chance of developing diabetes when given to people at high risk, according to the results of an international trial published last year.

But three American professors writing in the British Medical Journal say taking a prescription drug to prevent the condition cannot be justified when lifestyle changes can achieve the same effect.

Professor Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, and colleagues say the "aggressive marketing of rosiglitazone as a preventive therapy" following last year's trial is an example of how healthy people are being turned into patients through the medicalisation of everyday life.

Multinational pharmaceutical companies with an interest in promoting new drugs are increasingly identifying "pre-disease states" which require treatment before people fall ill, they say."

"Speaking yesterday, Professor Montori said: "Our main concern is the idea that you can turn people into patients very early by getting them to take pills. Diabetes is not a disease you feel you have, it is a disease your doctor tells you that you have. All the drugs do is prevent your blood sugar rising to a level that triggers the diagnosis."

"You end up with patients taking more drugs who are then at risk of getting side effects and who have to go for more check-ups. You have become a patient where previously you were at risk of becoming one."

Heart disease, obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure were other conditions where drugs were prescribed instead of lifestyle changes."

""There is a tendency then to identify obesity as a condition that needs treating and if you keep going you get to a point where being alive and eating is a risk factor. We should be very cautious about the medicalisation of people who feel healthy and then through treatment become patients."

"Rosiglitazone, marketed in the UK as Avandia by Glaxosmithkline, is an established treatment for people with diabetes, but last year's trial, run in 21 countries and published in The Lancet in September, was aimed at establishing its role in preventing the condition. The results showed that for every 1,000 people at high risk treated with the drug for three years, it would protect 144 who would otherwise have developed the condition.

But most of these people would be unaware of their condition, would not experience any immediate benefit, would require more visits to the doctor, and would have their anxiety levels raised by the diagnosis.

The authors say in the BMJ: "Even under the most optimistic assumptions, patients offered rosiglitazone for prevention will end up taking more pills. Thus neither patients who value preventing diabetes in order to avoid taking drugs, nor a society concerned with cost minimisation, will benefit from early use of rosiglitazone.""

To reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol problems completely safely, stop eating salt and salty food, and do your damnedest to avoid taking prescribed drugs unless they are strictly necessary. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)