Actos Drug

The government is seeking its strongest safety warning for Avandia and Actos -- two drugs widely used to treat Type 2 diabetes -- amid heightened concern that heart failure risks associated with the medications are poorly understood, officials said Wednesday. The disclosure by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach came during a House hearing on the agency's oversight of Avandia.

Diabetics won another treatment Friday that promises to fight their disease with less risk than a popular but sometimes dangerous drug. Actos, known chemically as pioglitazone, won Food and Drug Administration approval to treat Type 2 diabetes by resensitizing patients' bodies to insulin.