Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11345
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Feeley J, Frank AD.
Glaxo Warns Lawyers Seeking Avandia Suits About Ads
Bloomberg News 2007 Jul 17
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aZCPLUJGS818&refer=healthcare
Full text:
GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the world’s second-largest drugmaker, sent letters to lawyers advertising for cases over the Avandia diabetes drug, demanding that they pull what the company contends are false or misleading ads.
Attorneys for London-based Glaxo contacted ``a small number’‘ of lawyers running television ads targeting Avandia users objecting to statements that the drug has been linked to heart attacks and death, said Alice Hunt, a company spokeswoman. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May found Avandia users were 43 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those taking other diabetes medicines.
``Lawyers have a right to advertise, but they have to play by the rules just like we do,’‘ Chris Viehbacher, president of Glaxo’s U.S. unit, said yesterday in a Bloomberg TV interview.
The number of Avandia prescriptions plunged after the study was released and doctors are still weighing whether to continue prescribing the medicine, which is the world’s top-selling diabetes treatment. The company contends other studies found no increased risk of heart problems.
The letter campaign indicates Glaxo officials are readying an aggressive defense to litigation over Avandia, the company’s second-best-selling drug after the asthma treatment Advair. The diabetes medicine generated $3.3 billion in sales in 2006.
``We’ve only written the letters to people whose advertisements cross the line, in our opinion,’‘ Hunt said in an interview. She wouldn’t identify the law firms Glaxo contacted.
Share Drop
Shares of Glaxo fell 10 pence, or 0.8 percent, to 1,300 pence in London. They’ve fallen about 6.5 percent since the Avandia study was announced May 21. Glaxo is the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical company after Pfizer Inc.
Company officials said that about 7 million people worldwide have taken Avandia and about 1 million U.S. residents are currently using the drug.
Glaxo officials are concerned misleading ads about Avandia’s heart attack risks will cause patients to stop taking the drug without consulting a doctor, Hunt said in the July 12 interview. Plaintiffs’ lawyers said Glaxo’s letters were prompted by litigation concerns.
``They think by threatening lawyers, they can shut the courthouse doors,’‘ Mark Lanier, a Texas lawyer who won the first verdict against Merck & Co. over its Vioxx painkiller, said in an interview yesterday. Lanier said he didn’t receive one of the company’s letters.
21 Million Patients
Almost 21 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, a disease in which the body doesn’t properly make or use the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar to energy. Avandia lowers blood sugar levels, which can cause complications such as kidney and eye damage by increasing the body’s sensitivity to insulin.
Glaxo officials are focusing their ire on advertisements ``stating conclusively’‘ that Avandia was linked to heart attacks and patients’ deaths, Hunt said.
The Cleveland Clinic study only found the drug ``may be associated with an increased risk’‘ of heart problems and the research suffers from ``severe limitations,’‘ Glaxo’s lawyers said in copy of one of the letters, provided by Lanier.
The missive, sent by the Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton to an unidentified law firm, contends that the plaintiffs firm’s ads ``are actionable’‘ because they imbue the study with ``a definitive, conclusory quality.’‘
David Ratner, a New York lawyer, said he and his co-counsel decided to pull their TV ads after receiving the letter. They continue to advertise for cases on the Internet, he said.
12,000 Calls
``We got about 12,000 calls and about 1,200 potential cases out of them,’‘ Ratner said.
Viehbacher said the company has ``seen a dramatic decline’‘ in TV advertising seeking Avandia cases since the letters went out.
Under the U.S. Constitution, lawyers can advertise their services, said Howard Erichson, a Seton Hall University law professor who teaches product liability law. Lawyers whose advertising includes false, deceptive or misleading claims can be sued, he said.
Glaxo is ``trying to kill two birds with one stone’‘ with its letter campaign, Erichson said. ``They want to back the lawyers off from advertising aggressively while defending the reputation of this drug.’‘
To contact the reporters on this story: Jef Feeley in Wilmington, Delaware at jfeeley@bloomberg.net ; Allan Dodds Frank in New York at allanfrank@bloomberg.net .
