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Diabetes Drug Maker Hid Test Data, Files Indicate
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: July 19th, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/health/policy/13avandia.ht...
In the fall of 1999, the drug giant SmithKline Beecham secretly began a study to find out if its diabetes medicine, Avandia, was safer for the heart than a competing pill, Actos, made by Takeda. Avandias success was crucial to SmithKline, whose labs were otherwise all but barren of new products. But the studys results, completed that same year, were disastrous. Not only was Avandia no better than Actos, but the study also provided clear signs that it was riskier to the heart. But instead of publishing the results, the company spent the next 11 years trying to cover them up, according to documents recently obtained by The New York Times. The company did not post the results on its Web site or submit them to federal drug regulators, as is required in most cases by law. The heart risks from Avandia first became public in May 2007, with a study from a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic who used data the company was forced by a lawsuit to post on its own Web site. In the ensuing months, GlaxoSmithKline officials conceded that they had known of the drugs potential heart attack risks since at least 2005. But the latest documents demonstrate that the company had data hinting at Avandias extensive heart problems almost as soon as the drug was introduced in 1999, and sought intensively to keep those risks from becoming public.
Note: For lots more on corporate corruption from major media sources, click here.
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