Free Republic

A widely-used diabetes drug should be pulled from the market, European regulators say.Avandia is used to control blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes patients. It was licensed 10 years ago and more than 100,000 patients in the UK use it despite on-going concerns linking it to heart problems. After reviewing safety data, the European Medicines Agency said the benefits no longer outweighed the risks and it should be suspended. The drug - generic name rosiglitazone - is also used in combination with other drugs under the names Avandamet and Avaglim.

U.S. Seizes Batches of Two Glaxo Drugs Over Quality Friday March 4, 11:33 AM EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that officials had seized batches of GlaxoSmithKline Plc's (GSK) diabetes drug Avandamet and the controlled-release antidepressant Paxil CR because of concerns over manufacturing quality. The FDA said in a statement that the manufacturing practices for the two drugs failed to meet standards for safety, strength, quality and purity. However, the agency said it was not aware of any harm to consumers and did not believe there was a significant health hazard. Patients taking...