UK's MHRA advises on rosiglitazone cardiovascular risk, saquinavir contraindications

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a reminder for health care professionals about current advice for the use of rosiglitazone (UK drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia, Avandamet) in the treatment of diabetes and has highlighted contraindications for the use of saquinavir.

In view of the growing evidence of cardiovascular risk with rosiglitazone, which escaped a US marketing ban in a recent vote by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel and is still subject to European review (The Pharma Letters July 15 and 23), the MHRA said that health care professionals should closely observe the current contraindications, warnings and precautions and monitoring requirements, and consider alternative treatments where appropriate.

New data have been published that raise concern about an increased risk of cardiovascular adverse effects of rosiglitazone, stated the MHRA, noting that these data add substantially to existing evidence and point towards an increased cardiovascular risk with rosiglitazone compared with both placebo and with pioglitazone.