Diabetes pill Avandia is suspended amid heart attacks alert

No prescriptions will be issued to new patients after the European Medicines Agency suspended marketing of the drug after deciding its benefits for those with type 2 diabetes no longer outweigh the risks.

It comes after the UK’s Commission on Human Medicines warned of the dangers in July, saying it “no longer had a place on the UK market”.

Patients already taking Avandia are being urged to continue to use it as prescribed because of the dangers of stopping treatment controlling their blood sugar but should seek their GP’s advice.

GlaxoSmithKline, which produces the drug containing rosiglitazone, said it was given to 109,000 Britons in 2009. Its use is also being restricted in the US.

Professor Kent Woods, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said: “Today’s suspension means that clinicians should review all patients currently on rosiglitazone and take appropriate action, according to the individual clinical situation, to change to another suitable treatment.”

GlaxoSmithKline’s chief medical officer, Dr Ellen Strahlman, said: “We are making every effort to ensure that physicians in Europe and the US have all the information they need to help them understand how these regulatory decisions affect them and their patients.”

Simon O’Neill, of health charity Diabetes UK, said: ““We welcome that a decision has been made about Avandia so people can now be supported to change on to an alternative treatment.”