Takeda Highlights Safety of Diabetes Drug in Ad Campaign

Takeda is showcasing the cardiovascular safety of its Type 2 diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone HCl) in a new ad campaign.

The ad does not mention by name a competing product, GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia (rosiglitazone maleate), which a joint FDA advisory committee voted in July to keep on the market despite its association with cardiovascular adverse events.

Avandia now carries an updated boxed warning and will be the subject of a long-term safety study comparing it with other oral diabetes medications, including Actos. In September, separate reports published simultaneously in The Journal of the American Medical Association delivered good news about the cardiovascular safety of Actos and correspondingly bad news for Avandia.

But Avandia is not the target of the Takeda ad, Shay Weisbrich, general manager of diabetes marketing for Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, said. “Our reason for doing this is that this has been a very confusing summer for diabetes patients” due to a string of alarming news reports about the safety of diabetes drugs, she said.

The ad will run in 82 daily newspapers and four weekly magazines in the next few weeks, including Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, People, the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, Elissa Johnsen, manager of product public relations for Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, said.