It's over for Avandia
For medical care I go to an Urgent Care Center here in California. The team of three physicians that meets with patients is great. You never need an appointment and it's easy to get my rx's filled. When business is slow we talk "shop" since they know I work in healthcare. When I brought up the subject of Avandia my physician told me that they had taken all their patients off the medication. "It's all over the Internet" she said, "and I have talked to colleagues on eMail. I just don't want to take the risk with my patients". I asked her if GSK has been in to see their practice to respond and she said "we haven't heard anything from them".
So this week the FDA is looking for outside
guidance on whether Avandia should continue to be
approved and if so what warnings it should have
on the label. However even in the best scenario
it maybe too late for GSK to resurrect the
Avandia business. Perception is reality and the
perception is that Avandia is more risky than
other drugs. In addition the generics are less
pricey and patients may ask "why take the risk?".
GSK has been on the defensive ever since the
first news story about Avandia was posted on the
Web. What puzzles me is why didn't they see this
coming and have a scenario plan in place? Was it
better to pretend this data didn't exist and bury
it in a mound of data? Once again pharma ignores
transparency and thinks that they can keep
information hidden from physicians and the
public. It's better to be naked in with your data
than try and hide things in hope that it will
never be found.
So Avandia sales are continuing to plummet and no
doubt that GSK will soon announce some job cuts
to keep the street happy. Maybe they will learn
from this experience or maybe they will continue
to be in a state of denial about the realities of
empowered consumers and physicians.