Canadian expert calls on U.S. FDA to stop 'unethical' diabetes drug trial

A leading Canadian researcher and the U.S. group Public Citizen are calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to pull the plug on a major international drug trial, calling it unethical. They say the TIDE trial, which is investigating the cardiovascular risks of the diabetes drug Avandia, should be stopped because there's enough evidence to show the drug is more dangerous than a similar drug, Actos and both drugs are more dangerous than older diabetes drugs. "It really does not make sense that this trial should continue," said Dr. David Juurlink, a researcher at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto who conducted an earlier large study comparing the drugs. That study, published last summer, found people taking Actos or pioglitazone for Type 2 diabetes are 23 per cent less likely to be hospitalized for heart failure and 14 per cent less likely to die than people taking Avandia or rosiglitazone - Canadian Press