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Article: Reports of drug's side effects triple
- Article from:
- Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
- Article date:
- July 13, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In the month after a surprising analysis revealed possible heart
risks from the blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, reports of side
effects to federal regulators tripled.
The sudden spike is a sign that doctors probably were unaware of
the drug's possible role in their patients' heart problems and
therefore may not have reported many such cases in the past, several
experts said.
It also shows the flaws of the safety tracking system and
suggests that a better one might have detected a potential problem
before the drug had been on the market for eight years.
Avandia is used to control blood sugar, helping more than 6