GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay about $460 million to resolve a majority of lawsuits alleging the company’s Avandia diabetes drug can cause heart attacks and strokes, people familiar with the accords said.

Glaxo, Britain’s biggest drugmaker, agreed to settle about 10,000 suits for an average of at least $46,000 apiece, the people said. The company had been facing more than 13,000 suits alleging Glaxo hid the drug’s heart-attack risk, according to a UBS AG analyst. The settlements come as Glaxo is set to face its first Avandia trial in federal court in Philadelphia in October.

“This is exceptionally good news given the market has discounted $6 billion in liability,” for Avandia litigation, Gbola Amusa, an analyst at UBS in London, said in an interview. “We had outlined an absolute worst-case scenario where $500,000 per case would have to be paid.”

Glaxo is settling Avandia claims as a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel met Tuesday to consider whether Avandia’s ability to control blood-sugar levels outweighs a possible increase in heart attacks, strokes and deaths from cardiovascular disease. Mary Anne Rhyne, a spokeswoman for Glaxo, declined to comment.

Avandia generated $1.1 billion last year for Glaxo, only about a third of the revenue it had before researchers linked the medicine in 2007 to a 43 percent increased risk in heart attacks.

 

Copy the Story Link