Health Canada Endorses Important Safety Information about Actos and Bladder Cancer – Why not the FDA?
April 26th, 2012 tmccoy
On April 16th, 2012, Health Canada (the equivalent of the FDA in Canada) in collaboration with Takeda (the manufacturer of Actos) endorsed important safety information about ACTOS (pioglitazone hydrochloride), particularly that there is a potential risk of bladder cancer in patients who are prescribed Actos to help control their diabetes.
This possible association between bladder cancer and Actos (pioglitazone containing products) was based on two recently done multiyear studies which showed that there was there was a larger number of cases of bladder cancer in the groups which were taking Actos as compared to the control group.
The FDA has yet to announce any such warning about Actos to medical practitioners in the United States, and we are unsure about why they have not done so.
