After bad-mouthing research attacking its diabetes drug Avandia, word now comes from The New York Times that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) attempted to intimidate a well-known diabetes researcher, Dr. John Buse. The doctor had raised concerns as early as 2000 that Avandia could increase heart disease. But, Glaxo apparently put pressure on the doctor to keep his views to himself.
The most recent data on the drug was published by Dr Steven Nissen in the New England Journal of Medicine. Nissen’s work was attacked by Glaxo. Then ABC News ran a piece saying that the Nissen "sounding alarms about the diabetes drug Avandia claims he is the target of a smear campaign organized by a top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokesman." The FDA official recently worked at Johnson & Johnson.
Glaxo has insisted as recently as this last week that the dangers of the drug were no greater than other products in it class.
If that is true, why hush up the critics?
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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