While health regulators around the world continue to call for Actos warnings, Novo Nordisk recently defended its own diabetes drug, Victoza, from attacks by a consumer advocacy group.
According to Reuters, Public Citizen said recently that Victoza increases the risk of serious health issues including kidney failure and thyroid cancer. Novo Nordisk, the Danish manufacturer of the medication, called such complaints baseless and noted it did not expect the FDA to take any action on its best-selling diabetes drug.
Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, chief science officer for Novo Nordisk, told the news source that Public Citizen had been citing old data from studies on mice and rats taking Victoza. Thomsen argued that such information had no bearing on human response to the drug.
"We do not expect any consequences for Victoza from Public Citizen's petition," Thomsen said. "There is nothing in it."
The drugmaker added that the FDA reviewed data from nearly 4,000 patients prior to approving Victoza, according to the news source.
Serious side effects being linked to diabetes treatments is nothing new, as Takeda Pharmaceutical Company's Actos has been associated with bladder cancer, according to studies.
This link has led to a significant number of Actos lawsuits being filed by patients from across the U.S. and in Canada. In these lawsuits, the patients claim they were not sufficiently warned about the potential life-threatening side effects and that they never would have taken the medication had they known about the possible health issues.
Actos, which is Takeda's best-selling drug, has seen sales decline as the FDA and European Medicines Agency have called on warnings to be placed on the drug's label.
