Diabetes drug manufacturer hid negative study results

Read Gardiner Harris' report in today's New York Times here. An excerpt follows:

In the fall of 1999, the drug giant SmithKline Beecham secretly began a study to find out if its diabetes medicine, Avandia, was safer for the heart than a competing pill, Actos, made by Takeda.

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Not only was Avandia no better than Actos, but the study also provided clear signs that it was riskier to the heart.

But instead of publishing the results, the company spent the next 11 years trying to cover them up, according to documents recently obtained by The New York Times.

The company, now GlaxoSmithKlein, may have violated the law by failing to submit the test results to federal drug regulators.