Two North Carolina patients have sued GlaxoSmithKline, claiming that the drug maker’s diabetes pill, Avandia, caused their heart attacks.
Mary Massey, 51, of Hope Mills and Era Gordon, 70, of Hertford are among hundreds of diabetes patients seeking compensation for health problems they experienced after taking Avandia.
The patients blame GSK for failing to adequately warn them of the pill’s cardiovascular risks.
GSK “knew of these dangerous effects in Avandia from the many trials which they performed and to which they had access and from their own analysis of these studies,” the lawsuit reads. “But [the company] took no action to adequately warn or remedy the defects, but instead concealed, suppressed and failed to disclose these dangers.”
A study published in May 2007 by the New England Journal of Medicine revealed data that linked Avandia to an increased risk of heart attack. Since then, Avandia prescriptions have dropped by more than 50 percent. The drug generated about $3 billion in worldwide sales in 2006.