Avandia® Injuries & Lawsuits

Dangerous Drug Attorney Serving Columbia, MO

GlaxoSmithKline is the manufacturer of Avandia® (rosiglitazone), which is a diabetes drug that is intended to help control blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes. When Avandia is used in combination with a doctor recommended diet and exercise program, it is supposed to help increase the patient's insulin sensitivity, which (insulin) is a naturally occurring substance that allows the body to control its blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes is a condition where the person's body is unable to process insulin normally and where it cannot control the amount of sugar in the bloodstream. Avandia is used to treat type 2 diabetes only, it is not prescribed for use in patients with type 1 diabetes, and it is not intended for patients who take insulin.

Patients who take Avandia are at an increased risk of experiencing serious heart problems including heart attack and stroke. Because of the serious risks associated with Avandia, the drug is only prescribed to patients with type 2 diabetes that cannot be controlled by any other medications. Avandia is not supposed to be prescribed to patients who have type 1 diabetes and if you are in a state of diabetic ketoacidosis, you should contact your treating physician immediately for insulin treatment. Avandia is an oral medication that is taken once or twice daily, either with or without meals. While Avandia is used by patients to treat type 2 diabetes, it is not a cure for the condition. If you are presently taking Avandia and experiencing adverse side effects, do not stop taking the medication without talking to your doctor first.

Avandia: Side Effects

There are a number of adverse side effects associated with taking Avandia, while some of them are not life-threatening; Avandia is still associated with more serious and life-threatening reactions including congestive heart failure and heart attack. Some of the more common forms of side effects associated with Avandia include the following:

• Headache
• Stomach pain, nausea, vomiting
• Dark urine
• Blurred vision or vision loss
• Swelling of the eyes, face, lips, tongue, throat
• Difficulty swallowing or breathing
• Fever, sore throat
• Difficulty seeing colors, difficulty seeing in the dark

There is a number of preexisting health conditions that make it so that certain people are not a candidate for Avandia. If you were born with any type of heart defect, or if you have high blood pressure, heart disease, an irregular heartbeat or high cholesterol, or if you have experienced swelling in the hands, feet, ankles or in the lower legs, then your doctor should monitor you very closely while taking Avandia. Due to the fact that taking Avandia may increase your risk of heart attack, it's critical that you seek emergency medical attention immediately if you experience shortness of breath, pain in the arm, jaw, neck, back or stomach, or if you experience chest pain that goes away and returns. Also, seek medical treatment immediately if you feel nauseous, squeezing in your chest or if you experience vomiting or breaking out in a cold sweat because these could be sings of a severe reaction from taking Avandia.

You Are Not Alone

Unfortunately, numerous dangerous drugs go through the fast track FDA approval process and are released on the market for consumer use. Tragically, many of these harmful drugs are virtually tested on the public for safety and efficacy. It's not uncommon for warnings to be issued by the FDA, or dangerous drugs to be removed from the market only after thousands of innocent consumers have experienced serious side effects, or death from taking such harmful medications.

By the time warnings are issued or after drugs are removed from the market, the pharmaceutical giant has already raked in billions of dollars in profits from the dangerous drug. While this common practice is tolerated, it shouldn't be accepted by those that have been injured by such harmful medications. 

If you have experienced adverse side effects after taking Avandia, we urge you to contact a Columbia dangerous drug attorney from The Sumner Law Group, LLC right away to find out if you have grounds for a lawsuit against the manufacturer of Avandia.