New Medical Studies Indicate Diabetes Drug Increases Risk of Developing Bladder Cancer

This past summer the diabetes drug Actos made the news for  all the wrong reasons, primarily the link between Actos use and bladder  cancer.  Actos is a diabetes drug  approved to help individuals with Type 2 diabetes control their blood  sugar.  While Actos has approved  effective at its primary objective, it hasn’t been completely without side  effects.  First came an FDA Actos warning for the increased risk of heart  attack.  This was similar to another  diabetes drug, Avandia, that was also linked to heart attacks and other forms  of cardiovascular disease.  All evidence  surrounding the FDA’s regulation of diabetes medications points to the agency  running a haphazard – at best – regulation of these diabetes drugs.  Next came the first FDA Actos bladder cancer  warning, which was updated with a strong warning less than a year later.  The FDA warning followed pharmaceutical  regulatory agencies in France  and Germany  taking much more extreme measures.  France suspended the drug entirely from the  market, which then led to a voluntary Actos recall, while Germany  prohibited all new Actos prescriptions.   If there’s one group that is taking all of this seriously, it’s the the Actos bladder cancer lawyers, many of  which were involved in the Avandia heart attack lawsuits.  The withdrawal of Avandia from the market allowed  Actos to become the top-selling diabetes drug in the US.  Although more information about this drug  and its risks are greatly needed, so is swifter action on the part of the FDA  when pharmaceuticals are found to potentially cause harm to their users.