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Commentary
February 23, 2011

Switching From Rosiglitazone: Thinking Outside the Class

Author Affiliations

Author Affiliations: Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program (Dr Lipska) and Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine (Dr Ross), Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.

JAMA. 2011;305(8):820-821. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.193

In July 2010, Takeda launched an aggressive ad campaign proclaiming that its leading diabetes medication, pioglitazone, was far safer than its rival, rosiglitazone. The ad stated, “Actos lower[s] blood sugar without increasing your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.”1 This may be true, but just because pioglitazone might be safer than rosiglitazone does not mean it is the safest and most effective treatment choice. For many patients currently taking rosiglitazone, simply switching to another thiazolidinedione (TZD) such as pioglitazone is not necessarily the best option.

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