FDA Removes Marketing Limits on Diabetes Drug Avandia

The Food and Drug Administration, in a U-turn from its position three years ago, removed restrictions on diabetes drug Avandia, reports the Wall Street Journal, and said it no longer had serious concerns over the drug’s heart-attack risk. One prominent Avandia critic, Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic, predicted doctors wouldn’t return to prescribing the drug. “I do not think this decision is in the public interest,” said Dr. Nissen, the clinic’s chairman of cardiovascular medicine and a prominent researcher who presented evidence of the drug’s risk.