The majority of panelists at an FDA meeting that revisited regulatory decisions made in 2010 recommended relaxing restrictions on the diabetes drug rosiglitazone.

Minneapolis-based Medtronic has launched a new peripheral balloon catheter after it was given thumbs up in the U.S. and Europe.

Half of mild to moderately obese patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes who underwent gastric bypass surgery achieved diabetes management goals compared with less than one-fifth of counterparts who received lifestyle and medical management. But the bypass group also experienced more adverse events in the study, which was published online June 5 in JAMA.

AstraZeneca will pay up to $443 million to buy a pharmaceutical company that is developing a treatment for dyslipidemia.

The FDA released the agenda and background material for its controversial two-day meeting to readjudicate the diabetes drug rosiglitazone. The briefing materials, with criticisms from and about FDA officials and others, offered a preview to what may become a contentious event.

The New York Times set the stage for the upcoming FDA meeting that revisits GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes drug, rosiglitazone (Avandia). The FDA said it is trying to “resolve uncertainty” about the drug, which has been limited based on concerns about heightened cardiovascular risk.   

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, FDA officials are in a tussle over angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs). Based on evidence of an increased risk in cancer, one reviewer argues for a stronger warning but his bosses aren’t convinced. They describe such action as a diversion from assessing new drug applications.

Newport Beach-based nonprofit Coalition Duchenne has awarded a $150,000 grant to a Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute team investigating whether an experimental cardiac stem cell treatment could be used to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients who have developed heart disease.