• Medilexicon.com, Monday, November 19, 2007 11:15 AM

Takeda Pharmaceutical, the maker of diabetes drug Actos, has rolled out a new ad campaign aimed at taking advantage of a rival's woes. The move comes following a safety warning issued for GlaxoSmithkline's Avandia and full page ads are running in local and weekly newspapers nationwide.

"If you have type 2 diabetes, Actos has been shown to lower blood sugar without increasing your risk of having a heart attack or stroke," the ad says -- a swipe at Avandia, which the Food and Drug Administration announced must carry a "black-box warning" that it may increase the risk of heart attacks or chest pains for people taking it.

Since May, when news of Avandia's heart attack risk broke, sales of the drug have been falling fallen sharply, while Actos sales are on the rise with many doctors switching patients over to it.

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