A large-scale survey of a cohort of some 1.5 million diabetic patients showed “a small increase” in bladder cancer in patients treated with pioglitazone, that is to say who took l. ‘Actos and Competact.
The French Agency for the Safety of Health Products has therefore decided to suspend the use of these two anti-diabetic drugs. It recommends that patients treated with Actos or Competact not to stop their treatment immediately and to consult a doctor. in order to adapt their antidiabetic treatment. Health professionals, for their part, are invited to stop prescribing pioglitazone-based drugs.
Respectively authorized in France in 2000 and 2006, Actos and Competact were suspected of increasing the risk of bladder cancer since the beginning of 2011. Afssaps notably issued an alert, last April, on a possible link between prolonged use of the pioglitazone molecule and increased risk of this type of cancer.
