GlaxoKline Smith Agrees to More Settlements for Avandia
We recently reported that the U.K’s biggest drugmaker, GlaxoKlineSmith, agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount with the family of an Avandia user who suffered a fatal heart attack in 2006 after using the diabetes drug for 15 months. That agreement sparked a wave of settlement negotiations, with Glaxo agreeing to pay more than $250 million to resolve another 5,500 Avandia claims.
The lawsuits share a common theme, alleging that Glaxo hid Avandia’s heart attack and stroke risks. The latest round of settlements will result in an average payment of $46,000 to each Avandia user that recently filed suit against the drugmaker. This is in addition to the $460 million that the company already agreed to pay to resolve allegations that it did not properly warn doctors and consumers about the medicine’s risks.
Glaxo agreed to stop promoting Avandia worldwide in September, after European regulators removed it from the market and sales in the U.S. were severely restricted in response to studies that linked the drug to increased risks of heart attacks and strokes. The drugmaker updated Avandia’s warning label to include additional safety restrictions and warn users that the drug is only intended for patients who do not respond to other diabetes drugs.