As BBC News reports, even though the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said Avandia's use should be suspended, it is still available on the NHS. Avandia is linked to increased risk of heart attacks and heart failure.
"Prof [Edwin] Gale, who chairs the European Medicines Agency scientific advisory group on diabetes, said Avandia should be withdrawn entirely.
"How long do you wait? How important is it to be absolutely certain and at what point do you start saying - this game isn't worth it, people's lives may be at risk, something should be done about it?" he said.
Clinical pharmacologist Dr Yoon Loke, of the University of East Anglia, said his analysis of the class of drug showed that it doubled the risk of heart failure, regardless of whether or not the patients were considered at high risk before they took the drug."
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