Personal Injury Law

Glaxo to Pay the Price for Avandia

By Jamie Sheller

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Time's 'Booster Shots' blog reported that Dr. David Juurlink, chief of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, along with Dr. Sidney Wolfe, of Public Citizen, is urging the US FDA to discontinue a study comparing Avandia, the type 2 diabetes drug, and its competitor, Actos. Dr. Juurlink's research uncovered safety concerns about Avandia. Both doctors stated that the trial is both 'unethical' and 'dangerous.' On its website, Public Citizen posted Dr. Wolfe and Dr. Juurlink's letter to Margaret Hamburg, the FDA Commissioner, detailing that the current trial is 'exposing thousands of high-risk patients with diabetes to a drug with an unfavorable safety profile and no clinical advantage over its comparator.'

The UK's Financial Times has reported that the manufacturer of Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline, may have to pay $1 billion to settle claims that Avandia has caused strokes and heart attacks. Based on out-of-court settlements, the investment bank, USB, was able to make its projection of what Glaxo will have to pay to claimants who have suffered or had loved ones suffer heart attacks and strokes as a result of using Avandia.

Sheller, P.C. currently represents those who have suffered heart attacks and strokes because of Avandia. If you are someone you know has been injured because of using Avandia, please contact Sheller, P.C.

Full post as published by Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer on May 12, 2010 (boomark / email).