GlaxoSmithKline stock down

GlaxoSmithKline stock down on fears over diabetes drug

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal

Shares of GlaxoSmithKline dropped 8 percent Monday after The New England Journal of Medicine published a study that says the company's anti-diabetes drug Avandia increases the risk of heart attack in patients.

GlaxoSmithKline sells $3 billion worth of Avandia worldwide every year. The journal's article analyzed results from dozens of studies on the drug, comparing thousands of patients who took Avandia to patients who took another anti-diabetes drug or a placebo. The article concluded that Avandia increases heart-attack risk in patients by 43 percent.

Glaxo (NYSE:GSK) responded sharply to the article in both a conference call and a written statement. The company said that the study's methodology was flawed, that the best way to examine the safety of a drug is in long-term clinical trials, and that the company's own data show that the drug is as safe as competing treatments.

Shares of GSK closed down 8 percent at $53.18 Monday after closing last Friday at $57.71.

GlaxoSmithKline is based in London and has a U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia.

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The company said that the study's methodology was flawed, that the best way to examine the safety of a drug is in long-term clinical trials, and that the company's own data show that the drug is as safe as competing treatments.

Now where have we haeard that before?