Avandia (rosiglitazone maleate), manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), is a prescription medicine used to treat type 2 (adult-onset or non-insulin dependent) diabetes mellitus.
Avandia is used to make the body more responsive to insulin. In theory, Avandia, when combined with suitable diet and exercise, helps the body to use its own insulin resources, keeping blood sugar levels stable. For some diabetes, however, Avandia is not suitable.
The blockbuster diabetes drug has been on the market for eight years. GlaxoSmithKline, the second largest drug manufacturer in the world, has earned billions of pounds worth of revenue from Avandia from international sales.
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Sales of Avandia have been in sharp decline since a research paper, published in September 2007 by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that patients taking Avandia had a significantly increased risk of a heart attack than those in a control group.
The results, compiled from four separate clinical trials lasting at least one year each, confirm earlier studies suggesting increased cardiological risks from taking Avandia.
There is disagreement between both healthcare associations and individual physicians over whether the drug should still be prescribed, but a FDA (Food and Drug Administration) advisory board has voted to keep the drug on the market.
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