Texas Family Sues Over Avandia Death
The widow and son of 60-year-old Larry Stanford of Beaumont Texas have filed a lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Avandia (rosiglitazone), claiming that the diabetes drug contributed to his fatal heart attack. Ironically, Mr. Stanford's heart attack occurred on the same day that a report warning of Avandia's dangers was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The family's attorney emphasized, "But what truly matters is what happened long before that date. I believe the evidence will show the company knew there were problems with Avandia, but decided to keep on selling it to Larry and others."
Avandia was first approved by the FDA in 1999. By 2006, doctors were writing about 13 million prescriptions for the drug, resulting in about $2.2 billion in sales. Since the warnings of heart risks appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, new prescriptions of Avandia have dropped.
Patients aren't the only ones who are unhappy about Avandia's recently-disclosed heart risks--investors have filed a class-action lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, claiming the company "failed to adequately disclose" information linking use of the drug to an elevated risk of heart problems.
