Thursday, September 13, 2007

GSK - Avandia: here comes "Hotshot" Mark Lanier


GlaxoSmithKline hid the risks of its Avandia diabetes drug to protect more than $2 billion in annual sales, according to a lawsuit filed by a lawyer who has won multimillion-dollar verdicts against other drugmakers.

Officials at Glaxo, Europe's biggest drugmaker, knew research showed Avandia users faced an increased risk of heart attack and failed to warn them, attorney Mark Lanier said in the suit filed Sept. 7 in federal court in New York.
Lanier, who won a $253 million verdict against Merck & Co. over its withdrawn Vioxx painkiller, sued Glaxo on behalf of Avandia user Frank Curley. Curley suffered a heart attack in 2004.

``Avandia poses significant safety risks due to defects in its design and inadequate labeling,'' Lanier said in the suit, which is seeking more than $100 million in damages.

More at Bloomberg

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