The new diabetes drug that’s twice as risky

Warning: A new double danger looms for diabetics

It was the most dangerous drug approved so far this year.

And yet AstraZeneca managed to turn it into something even more risky.

For several years the drug maker couldn’t even get the FDA to approve Farxiga. That is until it finally pushed it through in January.

Still it came out of the gate with some serious problems.

First, it doesn’t work very well.

Second, its risks are off the charts.

But now, what Astra and the FDA have done takes that risk to new heights.

Farxiga lowers blood glucose by altering how your kidneys work.

At first the FDA said “no” to it. And since it doesn’t use that word very often, you can imagine just how dangerous this drug is.

Dangers like bladder and breast cancer, damage to the heart and liver, or even blood pressure that’s too low.

At the turn-down meeting for that drug last year, FDA officials said women taking Farxiga would increase their breast cancer risk 400%. And guys could have a 500% greater chance of developing bladder cancer.

So even after it was approved, the word was out. And Astra wasn’t seeing the blockbuster sales numbers for Farxiga it had budgeted.

So did the drug maker give up?

Not by a long shot. After all, Astra had spent some serious money on this one. Even by Big Pharma standards.

So they pulled the old department-store trick. You know, the twofer sale. Only in this case you get two dangerous diabetes drugs in one. And combined, they’re even worse.

They gave named this new combo — Xigduo XR. I guess they didn’t want it to sound too similar in case you had heard about the dangers of Farxiga.

Xigduo XR combines Farxiga and the old diabetes drug metformin. And it looks like it might be a particularly deadly twosome.

Metformin can cause a life-threatening condition called “lactic acidosis.” In fact, the newly approved Xigduo XR label already carries a black box warning about that.

Lactic acidosis is the buildup of lactic acid in your blood. The symptoms are subtle and sneaky like, “feeling tired” or “uncomfortable,” “feeling cold” or having “stomach discomfort.”

That black box says that if this condition is suspected, to get the person to the hospital immediately. So you see how dangerous this side effect can be.

Now, one of the big risk factors for lactic acidosis is dehydration.

But don’t think you have to run a marathon in the heat to get dehydrated. It may be all you have to do is take Xigduo XR.

Because one of the things that other half of this new combo pill, Farxiga, can do is to seriously dehydrate you.

The way the med works, making you get rid of all that glucose in your urine, also makes it act like a diuretic. Even the FDA says that it can cause such severe dehydration that your blood pressure can drop low enough for you to faint.

But incredibly, it allowed Astra to mix these two meds together! It sounds like a recipe for disaster in a little brown Rx bottle.

Now, AstraZenica says adding this new drug to its “U.S. diabetes portfolio” shows the company’s “commitment” to finding new “treatment options” for diabetics.

Notice, it doesn’t say anything about finding safe treatment options — or ones that work — only new ones. And guess who benefits most from that?

Sources:
“2-in-1 diabetes pill OKd by FDA” October 30, 2014, Newsmax Health, newsmaxhealth.com