Diabetes drug can double your chances of losing a limb
The risk of an amputation is one of the scariest complications of having diabetes.
The good news about that, however, is that diabetes-related amputations have dropped by around half over the last two decades. That’s said to be due to better foot and wound care and better “diabetes management.”
But if you or someone you love has type 2, and your “management” involves the new med Invokana, you can toss all those reassuring statements right out the window.
Because after sitting on the facts for over five years, the FDA has finally gotten around to issuing a warning to anyone who uses this drug that their risk of losing a toe, foot or leg is bigger than ever.
Ever since Invokana hit the market in 2013, we’ve been hearing nothing but horror stories about its side effects.
In an attempt to stop the drug’s approval, Dr. Sidney Wolfe, past director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, went before the FDA’s drug advisory committee to present evidence showing just how dangerous this drug will be for those with type 2.
And he was right.
As we told you right around this time last year, research was revealed that patients taking Invokana were experiencing up to twice the rate of amputations as those taking a placebo.
So what did the FDA do about it?
True to form, it issued one of those “safety alerts” on its website, and said that it planned to investigate this problem further. At that time, the agency was quick to tell us that mostly toes were involved, as if that, somehow, was going to make it sound less risky.
Well, its investigation is finally finished. And yes, Invokana is clearly associated with a “doubling of the risk for both leg and foot amputations.”
The risk was so clear-cut, in fact, that the FDA is now requiring a black-box warning to be put on the drug packaging.
That’s right — it looks like the same med that’s supposed to be protecting you from amputation could end up costing you your limbs instead.
But this finding isn’t really a surprise, because this amputation danger is something that a “monitoring committee” for canagliflozin (the generic name of Invokana) has been analyzing for around five-and-a-half years!
It’s all part of one of the most ridiculous and risky ideas ever put into practice, where a drug is allowed on the market while the safety studies are still ongoing. That basically allows a company to make millions on its meds before we learn how dangerous it really is.
But with Invokana, there may be more than our limbs at stake.
Invokana and other diabetes drugs in the same family, called SGLT2 inhibitors, work by dumping glucose in your urine. And experts have warned that can cause dehydration, abnormally low blood pressure, and damage to the kidneys and heart.
As Public Citizen’s Dr. Wolf warned years ago, the way the drug works “can cause a cascade of adverse events.” Even having “moderately” reduced kidney function, he said, puts people at high risk with this drug.
On top of that, the FDA has already issued other warnings about how Invokana can trigger a life-threatening condition called ketoacidosis.
So if your doctor has prescribed Invokana, Invokamet, or even another SGLT2 inhibitor (like Farxiga, Jardiance, Glyxambi or Xigduo XR), it’s urgent that you talk with him as soon as possible about what your alternatives are.
Because your limbs — and maybe even your life — could depend on it.
“FDA adding boxed warning to canagliflozin for amputation risk” Miriam E. Tucker, May 16, 2017, Medscape, medscape.com
