Jo’s Cafe

FDA to Review Avandia
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — GlaxoSmithKline is getting ready for a face-to-face with the FDA about its diabetes drug Avandia, which has been on the hot seat since a study blamed the drug for increasing the risk of heart attack.

The Food and Drug Administration has asked Glaxo to participate in a July 30 fact-gathering meeting about Avandia, a drug that controls blood-sugar levels in diabetics. At the meeting, an FDA advisory committee intends to hammer out the issue of heightened heart attack risk that has been associated with the British drugmaker’s diabetes blockbuster.

The FDA, which has come under fire in recent years for allowing risky drugs like Merck’s anti-arthritis painkiller Vioxx to slip through its regulatory system, is trying to figure out what to do with Avandia.

Beyond fact-gathering, the purpose of the July 30 meeting is unclear. But the stakes for Glaxo are high. Avandia is the company’s second-biggest seller, with $3 billion in 2006 sales. Analysts say that sales have slipped since allegations of heightened heart attack risk emerged in May. Source

Jo Says: I hated Avandia when I first was diagnosed. Yes, I put on weight that was needed at the time because I’d gotten so thin, but then it got to a point I couldn’t get it back off. Once I went on Actos, the weight came off and I stablized. I’m not on Actos any longer thankfully. But these drugs are suppose to help us, yet diabetics have to watch their weight and then the medicine doesn’t let you. What cures you can kill you I guess!

Pig To Human Transplantation Getting Closer
Experiments using pigs genetically engineered for compatibility with the human immune system have raised hopes that cross-species transplantation could soon become an option for patients with diabetes and other currently incurable diseases. However, many scientific hurdles remain before the ultimate goal of inducing long-term tolerance of animal tissues and organs in human recipients, according to a special paper in the July 15 issue of the journal Transplantation, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

“The potential benefits of successful xenotransplantation to large numbers of patients with very differing clinical conditions remain immense, fully warranting the current efforts being made to work towards its clinical introduction,” concludes the article. The lead author is Dr. David Cooper of Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Source

Jo Says: I’m not surprised this type of medical use of pigs is moving this direction. I take Armour Thyroid, which is made from pigs, because I do not have a thyroid. The pig thyroid is 98.99% as close to the human thyroid as any other in the animal kingdom. I am one of the fortunate that stabalized at 2 grains and do not need extra T4 to balance out the difference. Interesting …

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