Avandia Diabetes Treatment – Official Statement Regarding Pioglitazone Alternative

Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Europe Limited, recently issued a joint response regarding the decision taken by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restrict the use of the drug Avandia (rosiglitazone), in order to allay any fears in patients who were being treated with drugs containing Pioglitazone.

Pioglitazone is a drug invented and developed by Takeda, which is of the same class and has the same use as Avandia (rosiglitazone), but has never been associated with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke or death.

In the official statement from the companies, they emphasized that Pioglitazone has been in commercial use since 1999, and is an active ingredient in several drugs which are used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, such as Actos, Competact, Glustin, Glubrava, and Tandemact, but has never been linked with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke or death.

Pioglitazone has been subject to rigorous clinical trials over the past 11 years in more than 20,000 patients across the world to prove its safety and efficacy, and it has also been estimated that over 100 million prescriptions for Pioglitazone have been written across the world since its launch. With regards to the similarities between Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Pioglitazone, Takeda stressed that although the two drugs belonged to the same class and had the same use, they differed in terms of chemical structure, which meant that they may not produce the same effects as each other.