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What is Avandia?

Avandia (generic name rosiglitazone) is a medicine used to treat people with type 2 diabetes. Avandia improves your ability to control blood glucose by making your body more sensitive to insulin. It belongs to the same class of medicines as Actos (pioglitazone).

Doctors may prescribe Avandia to take alone or in combination with other diabetes drugs that work differently. When used alone, Avandia can lower hemoglobin A1C (a measure of blood glucose control) by 1 to 1.5 percent. But some people achieve greater control when combining Avandia with other drugs that lower blood glucose.

The dose of Avandia ranges from 4 to 8 mg once or twice a day, with or without food.

Sources:
Avandia product information, GlaxoSmithKline, 2001.
Fonseca, V. "Effect Of Metformin And Rosiglitazone Combination Therapy In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial"' Journal of the American Medical Association 283 (2000).
Micromedex Healthcare Series. Micromedex Inc., 2001.
Raskin, P. "Rosiglitazone Short-term Monotherapy Lowers Fasting and Post-prandial Glucose In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes," Diabetologica 43 (2000).
Wolffenbuttel, B.H. "Addition Of Low-dose Rosiglitazone To Sulphonylurea Therapy Improves Glycaemic Control In Type 2 Diabetic Patients," Diabetic Medicine 17 (2000).
Raskin, P. “A Randomized Trial of Rosiglitazone Therapy in Patients with Inadequately Controlled Insulin-Treated Type 2 Diabetes.” Diabetes Care 24 (2001).

This answer prepared 8/1/01.