Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-31/glaxosmithkline-settles-suit-on-avandia-diabetes-drug-heart-attack-death.html
GlaxoSmithKline Settles Avandia Heart Attack Death Litigation on Trial Eve
By Jef Feeley - Jan 31, 2011 12:22 PM ET
GlaxoSmithKline Plc said it settled on the eve of trial a lawsuit alleging its Avandia diabetes drug caused a North Carolina man to die of a heart attack, avoiding a jury determination over risks associated with the medicine.
The U.K.’s biggest drugmaker resolved the suit by the family of James Burford, an Avandia user who died in 2006. The company declined to provide details of the accord’s terms. The resolution eliminates the risk Glaxo would face a large jury award, said Navid Malik, a drug-industry analyst at Matrix Corporate Capital in London.
Investors worried it “could lead to substantial punitive damages,” Malik said in a Jan. 25 interview. The company has already agreed to pay almost half a billion dollars to resolve claims it hid the drug’s health risks. “GSK needs to successfully settle as many of these cases as possible.”
The lawsuit, scheduled for trial this week in Philadelphia federal court, was the first of 2,000 heading to court alleging London-based Glaxo hid Avandia’s health risks. Regulators in Europe had the drug withdrawn from the market and U.S. sales were limited because of heart attack risks. Glaxo had also said it was setting aside money to address federal prosecutor probes of its marketing of at least nine drugs, including Avandia.
Mary Anne Rhyne, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for Glaxo, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that the company settled the Burford case to avoid the risks and costs of litigation.