Assessing the Cardiovascular Safety of Diabetes Therapies

The Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), of which I am a member, convened in early July to consider whether data on long-term cardiovascular safety should be required for new and existing therapies for type 2 diabetes mellitus, whether trials should merely rule out harm or must show cardiovascular benefit, and at what point in the drug-approval process and by what methods cardiovascular data should be obtained.Clinical treatment goals for patients with type 2 diabetes include alleviating acute symptoms of hyperglycemia and forestalling diabetes-related complications. Drugs that are approved by the FDA . . .