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Lovell, Lovell, Newsom & Isern
112 West 8th Ave, Suite 1000
Amarillo, TX  79101-2314
Phone: (806) 373-1515
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GlaxoSmithKline's drug, Avandia (rosiglitazone maleate), has been linked to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and death from heart related vascular or cardiovascular disease, such as congestive heart failure or stroke.  Avandia is prescribed to help control blood sugar levels in diabetics by making patients more sensitive to their own insulin. 

Avandia was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999 and at one time was the world's best-selling drug for Type 2 or Adult Onset Diabetes.  Estimates to date are that more than six million people worldwide have taken the drug Avandia.

Heart risks from Avandia first became public in 2007 when the New England Journal of Medicine published an article by Dr. Steven E. Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic in which he estimated that users of Avandia had a 43 percent higher risk of heart attack or other severe cardiovascular event. 

Subsequent lawsuits against Avandia drug maker GlaxoSmithKline reveal that the company was aware of this potential side effect as early as 1999 when they secretly began a study to determine if Avandia was safer for the heart than it's competing drug, Actos, made by Takeda.  GlaxoSmithKline continued to actively surpress public knowledge of the potential side effects as one document revealed that lost sales would cost the company "$600 million from 2002 to 2004" alone. (New York Times)

If you or a loved one has suffered a heart attack, stroke or complications or death due to cardiovascular disease after taking the GlaxoSmithKline drug, Avandia, call to speak to an attorney at Lovell, Lovell, Newsom and Isern.