Most of us have used Google to find out more about existing medications, but the tech giant also has a life sciences division, which has now entered into a $715 million partnership with big pharma biggie GlaxoSmithKline to form a new company focused on fighting disease through technological innovations. [More]
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Nearly A Year After Recall, Alli Weight-Loss Pills Return To Stores
By 2.25.15
In March 2014, drug giant GlaxoSmithKline issued a voluntary recall of the popular alli weight-loss pill over concerns about possible package tampering. Nearly a year later, the over-the-counter drug is finally coming back to stores. [More]
GSK To Pay $105 Million To Settle Advair, Paxil, Wellbutrin Disputes
By 6.4.14
Drug biggie GlaxoSmithKline has been slapped with another huge settlement for its questionable marketing tactics. This time, the pharma company has agreed to pay $105 million to resolve claims made by attorneys general from 45 states regarding the selling of asthma drug Advair and antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin. [More]
Weight-Loss Drug Alli Recalled Over Tampering Concerns
By 3.27.14
Big pharma biggie GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has issued a recall all on all of its alli weight loss products in the U.S., including Puerto Rico, over concerns that packages may have been tampered with, resulting in some bottles containing something other than actual alli capsules. [More]
Walgreens Wants Everyone To Know It’s Continuing To Sell Cigarettes
By 2.5.14
Earlier today, CVS surprised an awful lot of people by saying it would give up $2 billion a year in cigarette sales because it’s “the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health.” Meanwhile, Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, apparently wants the world to know that it will keep on selling tobacco. [More]
GSK Theoretically Not Going To Pay Off Docs Anymore
By 12.17.13
Giant drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline announced today that it intends to stop paying doctors to prescribe more of the company’s drugs, a move that could possibly entice other large pharma companies to do the same. [More]
Avandia Makers Hit With Another $90 Million Settlement
By 11.15.12
Pharma biggie GlaxoSmithKline has already been slapped upside the head with a $3 billion settlement with the federal government regarding the marketing of, among others, the once-popular diabetes drug Avandia. Today, the attorneys general of 37 states rubbed a bit of salt in the wound with a $90 million settlement of their own. [More]
DOJ Alleges Glaxo Paid Dr. Drew $275K To Talk Sexy About Wellbutrin
By 7.3.12
Yesterday, pharma biggie GlaxoSmithKline settled for $3 billion with the Justice Dept. over a wide range of fraud-related allegations. Among all the documents involved in the case are claims by the DOJ that GSK paid TV/Radio personality Dr. Drew Pinsky a pile of cash to talk up off-label uses of the company’s antidepressant Wellbutrin, including a purported tie to causing multiple orgasms in females. [More]
GlaxoSmithKline Pleads Guilty & Will Pay U.S. $3 Billion To Resolve Fraud Allegations
By 7.2.12
In the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history, prescription drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is set to plead guilty and pay $3 billion to the U.S. government. The settlement will resolve federal criminal and civil inquiries about things ranging from the company’s illegal promotion of some of its products to its failure to report safety data and alleged false price reporting. [More]
FDA Panel Split On Vote To Remove Avandia From Shelves
By 7.14.10
Today, an advisory panel met to discuss and vote on whether or not to recommend if the FDA should pull diabetes drug Avandia from the market over a possible link to increased risk of heart attacks. In the end, the voting leaves no definite direction for how the FDA will ultimately come down on the issue. [More]
Is An FDA Conflict Of Interest Keeping Avandia On The Market?
By 2.22.10
A new report from the Senate Finance Committee alleges that drug company GlaxoSmithKline not only knew about a possible link between their diabetes medication Avandia and heart attacks, but also acted to keep the FDA from pulling the drug off shelves. If so, how were they able to do it? [More]
GSK Sued For Fraudulently Delaying Generic Version Of Wellbutrin
By 5.14.08
A class action lawsuit has been filed accusing GlaxoSmithKline of lying to the Patent office and dickering with fake patent litigation against generic drug makers to fraudulently stymie generic versions of Wellbutrin from hitting the market. The lawsuit applies to people who directly bought Wellbutrin from GSK in 100 or 150mg hits between Jan 24, 2002 and June 30, 2006. Obviously, the long GSK could keep a generic version of their drug off the market, the more money they could make. People interested in joining could probably contact the firm of Roda and Nast, lead plaintiff team, for more information.
Glaxo Buys Aging Retardation Drug Company
By 4.24.08
GlaxoSmithKline is buying a U.S. biotechnology company that is researching resveratrol, the chemical compound found in red wine that may retard the aging process. The CEO of the company says that “drugs that mimic resveratrol, by activating enzymes called sirtuins, could ‘treat in a safe, natural new way, many of the major killers of western society.'” We can’t wait to see the commercials that GSK puts out for this one.
Avandia Stays On The Market
By 8.1.07
Since the study was published, Consumer Reports has come out in favor of older drugs:
Diabetes drugs received wide attention last spring when research found a possible link between rosiglitazone (Avandia) and a higher risk of heart attacks. While those risks remain unclear, the CR Best Buy Drug report cites other reasons that rosiglitazone and the related drug pioglitazone (Actos) are not wise first choices for most people with diabetes, including their higher risk of heart failure compared with other diabetes drugs.
Consumer Reports that patients should first ask their doctors about metformin (Glucophage and generic), claiming that the effectiveness of the older drugs are equivalent to the newer ones, but with less potential risk.
Drug Company VP Admits New Diet Drug Made Him Crap His Pants
By 5.24.07
“You may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of your treatment effects, it’s probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work. “
There’s nothing to be ashamed about. Even GSK VP Steve Burton admitted to having “one experience like that.” Oily rectal spotting, you are just the price we must pay for thinness. Well, that… and $1 a day. —MEGHANN MARCO
FDA Knew About Potentially Lethal Diabetes Drug Since Last August, Said Nothing
By 5.22.07
The study was outed yesterday on the New England Journal of Medicine’s website. The editors of the journal and the study’s lead author both warned that the research methodology left the “findings open to interpretation.”
Paxil Unafraid to Demonstrate Bling in ’98 Memo
By 7.20.06
You may recall Paxil as the inspiration for several Law & Order episodes. In 2004, NY Attorney General began proceedings against Paxil makers GlaxoSmithKline after the company suppressed five internal studies between 1998 and 2002 revealing links between the drug and incidences of suicide among its users, especially children and young adults.
