A story in the September 29 issue of New Scientist magazine reports:
When the US Congress examined the controversy over the diabetes drug Avandia back in June, things got embarrassing for GlaxoSmithKline. A researcher who raised safety concerns in 1999, although he later withdrew them, was questioned about attempts by the company to silence him – a charge GSK denied. Now it has emerged that conversations about how to deal with the critic took place at the highest levels. Internal emails presented to the Senate this month show that several executives, including CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier, knew of plans to put pressure on John Buse, a diabetes researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). One email, entitled “Avandia Renegade�, was sent in June 1999 by William Claypool, a senior vice president at what was then called SmithKline Beecham, to Tachi Yamada, then chairman of research and development. It accuses Buse of misrepresenting safety data. Claypool suggests warning Buse not to repeat the claims, with the “punishment� being that “we would complain up his academic line� and to the bodies that gave Buse accreditation for teaching. Yamada’s reply, sent the same day, was copied to Garnier. In it, Yamada discusses the possibility of approaching the chairman of Buse’s department and of suing Buse for “knowingly defaming our product�.Posted by schwitz at September 28, 2007 12:46 PM | TrackBack