Researchers found evidence that the drug could even contribute to swelling, heart failure and weight gain.
The study examined pooled data from 18 past trials involving 8,000 patients.
Ronald Krall, GSK’s chief medical officer, dismissed the findings: “it’s looking at a very thin slice of the total available evidence for rosiglitazone and really ignoring a huge amount of research,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Krall says the world’s second largest drugmaker had conducted its own research involving more than 52,000 patients, and found Avandia to have a similar safety profile to other oral antidiabetics.
Since May, GSK’s sales of the drug have fallen 13%; a loss of $23 billion in market value.