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Diabetes Pill Actos Strains Hearts In Studies

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By LINDSEY TANNER, The Associated Press

Published: September 12, 2007

CHICAGO - The widely used diabetes pill Actos appears to lower a patient's chances of death, heart attack or stroke, unlike its beleaguered chief rival Avandia, a new analysis shows.

However, it also carries an increased risk of nonfatal heart failure, the analysis showed, confirming earlier studies. Heart failure also is a side effect with Avandia. Such problems led one diabetes expert to recommend that both drugs be considered second choices behind older, cheaper pills.
Heart failure 'is a significant side effect,' said Alvin Powers, director of Vanderbilt University's diabetes center. 'No one would say that you should be on these drugs to prolong your life.' He was not involved in the research.

Older drugs are available in generic form and can cost less than 20 cents a day - 10 times less than Avandia and Actos. However, the older drugs can stop working and doctors may try newer pills instead of having patients resort to insulin injections.

When the older drugs lose effectiveness, Actos 'is a drug that, clearly, I think is preferable,' said A. Michael Lincoff, who co-authored the Actos study with Cleveland Clinic colleague, Steven Nissen.

Their research was paid for with a $25,000 grant from Takeda Global Research & Development, a division of Actos' maker, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. of Osaka, Japan.

The review, appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the biggest to date on Actos. It pools results of 19 rigorous studies. Compared with patients taking other diabetes drugs or none, Actos patients had an 18 percent reduced risk of death, heart attack or stroke.

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