FDA frets about heart risks of J&J's diabetes drug canagliflozin

Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) is at a critical stage in its pursuit of an FDA approval of its diabetes drug canagliflozin. Outside experts will undertake a review of the data in two days, and agency insiders have charged them with grilling the J&J team over evidence of heart risks for the lead drug in a new class of treatments. The FDA review out today notes that patients in the treatment arm faced a potentially higher risk of heart events in the first month of taking the SGLT2 therapy, according to Bloomberg. These new SGLT2 drugs flush blood sugar in the urine. And Eli Lilly ($LLY), Boehringer, Bristol-Myers ($BMY) and AstraZeneca ($AZN) have all invested heavily in the race to bring new therapies to the huge market for diabetes drugs. Story