When a Congressional committee holds a hearing next Wednesday, the subject will be the safety of the diabetes drug Avandia and whether federal drug regulators have paid close enough attention to its potential risks.
But for one witness who is scheduled to appear, Dr. John B. Buse, a nationally noted diabetes specialist, the hearing will take a different turn, focusing on whether he was the target of an effort by the drug’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline, to silence his criticism of the drug.
In a statement last night, Dr. Buse said his full story would be told at the hearing, including the account of how he was intimidated by Glaxo.
But he said the company apologized and he later reported his concerns about the drug to the Food and Drug Administration.
“It was upsetting, but it was not life-altering,” Dr. Buse’s statement said. “I hold no ill will toward Glaxo or any of its employees.”
But for one witness who is scheduled to appear, Dr. John B. Buse, a nationally noted diabetes specialist, the hearing will take a different turn, focusing on whether he was the target of an effort by the drug’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline, to silence his criticism of the drug.
In a statement last night, Dr. Buse said his full story would be told at the hearing, including the account of how he was intimidated by Glaxo.
But he said the company apologized and he later reported his concerns about the drug to the Food and Drug Administration.
“It was upsetting, but it was not life-altering,” Dr. Buse’s statement said. “I hold no ill will toward Glaxo or any of its employees.”
But one of his friends, a University of Michigan diabetes expert, Dr. Charles F. Burant, said that Dr. Buse had been troubled by the pressure he had received from Glaxo.
Dr. Burant said he was not familiar with specifics, but that the pressure had included Glaxo’s contacting the University of North Carolina medical school, where Dr. Buse was then on the faculty and is now the head of endocrinology.
Dr. Buse’s friend, Dr. Burant, said in a telephone interview, “I never wrote a prescription for Avandia because of the heavy-handed way Glaxo treated John Buse.”
When Glaxo sales representatives have asked him why he was not prescribing Avandia, “I was very straight with them,” Dr. Burant recalled.
“When they were giving John a hard time, I just told them that if this is the way you’re going to treat people who are doing their usual scientific review of the product, it’s not the kind of company I’m going to support,” Dr. Burant said. “I just told them flat-out.”
More at the NYT
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