Avandia Beats Other Diabetes Drugs

Filed in archive Treatment on December 15, 2006

At least in one trial. Recently, Avandia was shown to be more effective in the treatment of diabetes than older drugs.

The first major head-to-head study comparing the newer diabetes drug Avandia with the older medicines metformin and glyburide shows that Avandia provides better glucose control than metformin, but carries more serious side effects and a higher cost, researchers said Monday.

"Metformin is still the first drug of choice" for newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetics, said Dr. Steven E. Kahn of the University of Washington and the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, who led the study.

Avandia, whose generic name is rosiglitazone, and metformin performed substantially better than glyburide, however.

"People who use glyburide will have to think about changing drugs," Kahn said. "In my opinion, the use of glyburide for any reason other than cost is going to become harder to justify."