Pioglitazone study shows reduction in death risk

Results from a study performed by the Cleveland Clinic, and published in the Sept. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, show that use of pioglitazone (Actos, Takeda) is associated with a significantly lower risk of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction. The meta-analysis of 19 trials found that 4.4% of patients taking pioglitazone either suffered an MI or died, compared with 5.7% receiving placebo or another diabetes medication. Pioglitazone was found to increase the risk of fluid retention, however, leading to heart failure. The analysis was performed by the same group who conducted a study earlier this year that found another thiazolidinedione—rosiglitazone (Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline)—raised a patient's risk of MI and cardiovascular death by 43% and 64%, respectively, compared with placebo. Glaxo said the recent findings on pioglitazone do not confirm a safety difference between the two drugs, but do reflect limitations that are common to all meta-analyses. Glaxo called the study heavily biased by data from the PROactive trial, which contributed to 80% of the endpoint data.

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