http://www.newstarget.com/z020865.html

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published October 24 2006
Popular diabetes drug useless, even harmful, for diabetics, study suggests
(NewsTarget) A recent study notes the diabetes drug pioglitazone (Actos) has
no clear-cut benefit for patients with type 2 diabetes, and may even be
harmful to users.
The scientists analyzed data from 22 clinical trials involving 6,200
patients who were prescribed pioglitazone -- a member of the
thiazolidinediones class of drugs, which theoretically increase the body's
natural insulin supply -- for type 2 diabetes. The authors reported no
evidence that the drug had a positive impact on patients, but they did note
an increase in edema and heart failure among pioglitazone users.

"The kernel from this review is that pioglitazone is effective in
glucose-lowering, has some other beneficial and potentially harmful
associated features, and just has not been evaluated in the right way to
prove that it will help people lead longer and more productive lives," said
Dr. John Buse, director of the Diabetes Care Center at the University of
North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. "This is true for
essentially every drug available for the treatment of diabetes. I am fairly
certain that we are better off with pioglitazone than without it."

Buse said that, while the report's findings are not incorrect, more data
would be required to truly assess the drug. The report recommended that
pioglitazone only be prescribed to patients showing real benefit from the
therapy.

"Only in Western medicine would doctors respond to a study that finds a drug
to be useless with the assertion that more testing is needed, or that the
drug was not evaluated correctly," said health advocate Mike Adams. "If it
had been a vitamin or supplement found to be useless and harmful, it would
have been pulled of the shelf immediately, no questions asked. It's quite a
double standard."