Maryland Injury and Disability Law : Washington DC Metro Injury & Disability Lawyer & Attorney : Greenberg & Bederman : Accidents, Falls, Medical Malpractice : Maryland, DC, Virginia

The drug in question is called rosiglitazone, and is marketed under the name of Avandia. It works as an insulin sensitizer, which makes the cells in the user’s body more receptive to insulin. Considering that an insulin deficiency is quite often one of the serious problems with type 2 diabetes, a drug that could help a diabetes patient better utilize existing insulin would serve to be very useful. This is what made Avandia such a popular drug for GlaxoSmithKline. In 2006, Avandia made GSK $3.2 billion in profits.

Shortly after that, things began to go a bit sour. A 2007 study by the Cleveland Clinic claimed that:

“Rosiglitazone was associated with a significantincrease in the risk of myocardial infarction and with an increasein the risk of death from cardiovascular causes…”

Shortly after this study was released, the Food and Drug Administration required GSK to put a so-called “black box” warning label on Avandia in June of 2007, which they then updated in November to include warning about an even greater risk of heart attacks.

Despite these warnings, the FDA refused to take Avandia off the shelves, mainly because they claimed that they had not found enough evidence to conclude that Avandia was more dangerous than any other similar drug on the market. But by this point most of the public relations damage had been done. Many doctors stopped prescribing Avandia, and simply moved on to drugs in a different class that performed the same function.

However, Avandia is still available for sale, even after a report from the Senate Finance Committee released this month claimed that not only was the drug significantly more dangerous than other anti-diabetes drugs, but that GSK actively tried to suppress any negative information about the drug:

"The totality of evidence suggests that GSK was aware of the possible cardiac risks associated with Avandia years before such evidence became public.…G.S.K. executives attempted to intimidate independent physicians, focused on strategies to minimize or misrepresent findings that Avandia may increase cardiovascular risk, and sought ways to downplay findings that a competing drug might reduce cardiovascular risk…"

So even after all this, Avandia is still available for prescription in the United States, and it is still a profitable drug for GSK, earning them millions per quarter. Granted, that isn’t the billions that they used to make, but considering that the pill is apparently dangerous to users, they should count themselves fortunate that they have been allowed to make any money at all.

There are a series of lawsuits against GSK being prepared all over the country, and usually when something like this happens one of the first lines of public relations defense is for the defendants to blame the lawyers. We expect a great number of press releases to accompany those that have already been put out, and we expect most of them to imply that the plaintiffs in these cases are people who are blaming unrelated medical problems on Avandia, or people who are being taken advantage of by unscrupulous trial lawyers, or people who just want to get in on a supposed “jackpot lawsuit.”

But from what we’ve seen, the majority of these lawsuits are filed by people with legitimate grievances. One of the first major lawsuits was not filed by an individual, but rather an entire government entity. The County of Santa Clara filed a suit against GlaxoSmithKline, on the grounds that they suppressed evidence of Avandia increasing the risk of heart attacks. According to the acting counsel of Santa Clara:

"GSK's unlawful conduct has cost patients, their insurers, and government payors millions of dollars, and it has caused needless suffering to thousands of Californians," said Santa Clara County's acting county counsel Miguel Marquez. "This is precisely the sort of corporate malfeasance that California law prohibits."

You have to consider the big picture when it comes to Santa Clara County. For every one Avandia user who suffered from heart complications, it cost the hospitals money, which cost the insurance companies money, which cost the patients money, which cost the county money. Everyone lost out on this pill except for GSK.

And the circumstances are similar for individuals filing a law suit. They were prescribed medication, which they took in good faith. This medication worked, but at the cost of physical dangers that were not effectively mentioned to those who chose to take the drug. They ended up injured, hospitalized, or worse, and they and their insurers were left with medical costs that would have otherwise not have to have been paid. This is not to mention the lost income from missing work, as well as the physical and emotional pain that the victims went through during these episodes of cardiac arrest.

Greenberg and Bederman is currently offering legal help to those in the Washington, D.C. area who have taken Avandia in good faith and have suffered as a result. Our attorneys have decades of experience, and can offer Avandia injury victims dedicated legal counsel. We serve the Baltimore and Washington Metropolitan areas including Maryland, DC, and Virginia.

Contact Greenberg and Bederman for a free Avandia legal consultation today.