Looks like Avandia may not have been a safe drug, but it was a good seller, so the market decided it was a good drug:
The diabetes drug Avandia, once the world’s top-selling diabetes medication, took two more hits Monday with one new study linking it to an increased risk of heart attacks and a separate study linking it to an increased risk of heart failure and stroke. The research comes only weeks before an upcoming federal hearing to reconsider its fate.
The drug, also known by its generic name, rosiglitazone, was approved in 1999 to help people with Type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar. At the time, it was considered a safer alternative than existing diabetes drugs used instead of insulin. Soon after approval, however, the drug was linked to an increased risk of heart failure and bone fractures; worries about the drug’s safety increased in 2007 when a meta-analysis — a pooling of previous studies — concluded that the drug increased the risk of heart attack.
I think one of the reasons the U.S has poor health outcomes, especially when you consider how much money we spend on healthcare is that the main motivation behind health care in the U.S is to make a profit. As long as we continue to believe their is a market based solution for every problem we will have more situations like this one with Avandia.