Will the Banned Rosiglitazone Reintroduced for the Neuropathic Pain

Banned drugs are in the news these days. Many drugs have been banned recently by the Drug Controller of India. DCI banned Gatifloxacin for systemic and oral use. Gatifloxacin eye drops were approved after the systemic use was banned.

Now the banned diabetes drug rosiglitazone is being explored as a short term pain medication in the US.

In patients who take rosiglitazone for glucose control, there is abundant evidence that rosiglitazone can increase the risk for heart failure, myocardial infarction, or death compared with its cousin pioglitazone.

In some patients this drug is the best bet. The US FDA recently released a rosiglitazone risk management strategy which limits the drug to patients already successfully treated with it or those for whom it's a last resort to control blood glucose medically.

The European Medicines Agency and the India DCI went further than its US counterpart by putting a complete halt on the sale of medications that contain rosiglitazone.

As per the new findings one can prevent development of nerve damage–induced neuropathic pain by controlling peripheral acute inflammation. The study will be published in the August issue of Anesthesia and Analgesia.

The preliminary exploration is based on a mouse model. Only 3-day administration of rosiglitazone immediately after nerve injury was sufficient to inhibit the development of chronic pain.

For pain management, patients would not need to take their medication daily like those with diabetes and might experience less risk because of it.

Local injection of rosiglitazone also produced similar effects as systemic administration. The side effects on the cardiovascular system can be avoided by local administration and by limiting duration for treatment to the acute phase.

Source: Anesth Analg. 2011;113:398-404.