GlaxoSmithKline caught in cover up, again!
The Senate Finance Committee has alleged that drug maker GlaxoSmithKline covered up results from its clinical trials of Rosiglitazone (Avandia). In the report the committee stated that GlaxoSmithKline hid negative results which were associated with heart risks.
Avandia is a drug which was approved to treat type 2 diabetes. The drug was approved in 1999. Internal emails show that GSK management looked to downplay findings which brought into question the safety of the drug. An internal memo showed that there was a clinical trial which found that Avandia had a worse lipid profile than Pioglitazone (Actos).
In a follow-up email an executive of the company wrote about the results stating “we would hope that these do not see the light of day.” This email was from July 20th, 2001.
A review of clinical trial data in 2007 showed the drug to have a 43 percent increase in risk of heart attack among patients.
Based on information from Glaxo it was predicted that if the poor trial results became public that the company could loose $600m for the period of 2002-2004.
Congress ruled in 2007 that all drug companies must disclose all negative results associated with trials of new drugs.
The data shows that GSK conspired to downplay negative information from its customers. This is not the first time GSK was found to have hidden negative trial results. In 2004 they were shown to have hidden information concerning its antidepressant, Paxil. Paxil was found to cause teenagers to have suicidal behaviors and thoughts. GSK settled an associated lawsuit by agreeing to post data from all of its trials.
In response to the report GSK has stated: “The Senate Finance Committee (SFC) has released a small subset of the 14 million pages of documents provided to plaintiffs’ counsel in the product liability litigation.”
