QDIS Blog

Avandia, the diabetes drug has been in the news quite a bit recently due to it possibly raising the risk of heart attack.

UPDATE 1-EU agency says already aware of Avandia heart risk
| Reuters

FDA study said to show Avandia risk - Yahoo! News

While I appreciate the information, I think it is interesting to note that the well respected cardiologist Steve Nissen is again involved in this. He was one of the key folks involved in the Vioxx analysis that showed it increased the risk of heart attack.

I can’t help but wonder though if you are a cardiologist and you are looking for cardiac events, if you night not be predisposed to finding such events. I’m not saying that is what happened but it struck me that we all view life through our own experiences and this creates a sort of lens through which we interpret life’s events.

for mre on this story look at some of the links I have listed below. Don’t trust me, read what others are saying and come to your own conclusions.

Other Resources

Yahoo! News Search Results for Avandia
Avandia - Google News
Blog Results

Google Blog Search: Avandia
avandia - IceRocket Tag
Individual Blogs
More Avandia, And More on Marketing. In the Pipeline: (great discussion on that blog on this)
‘Round the Sphere: Health Care Renewal Rebuffed by In the Pipeline on Avandia
Health Care Renewal: Expanded Avandia Story Now Echoes Familiar Themes

Technorati Tags: Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline, Steven Nissen

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Seems three Indian companies have already moved to copy Sanofi’s Acomplia (rimonabant) before it is even for sale in Europe and the US. The companies identified are Sun Pharmaceuticals, Torrent Pharma and Zydus Cadila.

Sanofi’s Acomplia already copied in India - paper:

It should be noted that India patent law does not require them to respect patents on drugs developed prior to 1995. The claim is that these companies are only making it for the Indian market but I find this suspect. Once sold in India, it will be hard to control its sales to other countries. This is likely what these companies are betting on. They are unlikely to go head to head with Sanofi but more likely to throw up their hands and say, we only sold to distributors in India and that they have no control over what happens after that.

Sanofi is exploring legal options but it is not likely to have many from my perspective, provided these companies do only sell in India. If they sell it into other countries they are likely to face legal disputes.

Technorati Tags: Acomplia, Rimonabant, Sanofi-Aventis

Email Ed Vawter

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