LONDON (Thomson Financial) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Europe's biggest drugmaker, received more good news on its troubled Avandia diabetes drug today after a second large-scale clinical trial showed that its Avandia drug does not cause an increased incidence of heart attacks, contradicting earlier research that led to a 400 million pound sales decline last year.
Findings from the Veterans Affairs Diabetes Trial, a large, long-term and independent study into heart attack problems in high-risk diabetes patients showed that while Avandia was used in a majority of patients in the study, it was not associated with increased deaths.
It follows the large-scale Accord study, which reported on Friday that researchers were unable to identify whether the type of drug used increased the risk of death. The study was specifically designed to work out whether control of blood sugar could cut heart disease.
These results differ from a report published in March last year, which specifically identified Avandia as causing an increased risk of cardiovascular events.
GlaxoSmithKline has seen full-year sales of Avandia, its second-biggest drug, fall to 1.2 billion pounds from 1.6 billion because of the safety concerns.
The original report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggested that Avandia increases the risk of heart attack by 43 percent, and death from cardiovascular causes by 64 percent.
However, the research, announced at the American Diabetes Association congress in San Francisco does not support this. It is more authoritative than the New England Journal of Medicine study because it is the result of clinical studies rather than just a so-called meta-analysis, which is an amalgamation of different research. ben.deighton@thomsonreuters.com bsd/ejp COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.