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Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits which alleged that the company failed to warn patients about possible cancer risks caused by the anti-heartburn medication Zantac.The lawsuits were filed in state courts across the country, but the agreements don’t completely resolve Pfizer’s exposure to the claims linking Zantac and cancer, according to Bloomberg News.Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.The Post has sought comment from Pfizer.Zantac was brought to market in 1983 by Glaxo Holdings, a company that is now part of the GlaxoSmithKline company.By 1988, it was the world’s best selling drug as patients reported benefits for...

It was late October. The trial date was November 1, 2010. And GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was facing charges brought by a GSK quality assurance manager. Her name: Cheryl Eckard. Eckard charged that the British drug giant for years knowingly operated a major facility in Puerto Rico with extensive manufacturing violations and the almost total breakdown of quality. Eckard’s lawyer – Neil Getnick of Getnick & Getnick – along with co-lead counsel Lesley Skillen and their law firm’s entire team – was ready to go to trial. But GSK chose not to. Last week, GSK settled for $750 million – including a...

BRITAIN’s biggest drugs company, Glaxo Smith Kline, is to axe up to 4,000 more jobs as part of its plans to restructure its workforce and focus increasingly on emerging markets. The bulk of the cuts will be in America and Europe, and are part of the company’s efforts to shift resources away from low-growth territories into parts of the world with greater scope to expand sales. Glaxo, which has been headed for nearly two years by chief executive Andrew Witty, employs 99,000 staff across the world and is expected to reveal plans for select cutbacks alongside its annual results this...

GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the world's second-biggest drug maker by sales, plans to cut prices in the world's poorest countries and invest 20% of its profit from those markets into building health clinics and other infrastructure. In a speech at Harvard Medical School on Friday, Glaxo Chief Executive Andrew Witty also proposed that drug companies, nonprofit groups and others donate their patents related to neglected tropical diseases to a common pool, with the hope that such a pool would speed development of new drugs. "Society expects us to do more in addressing these issues. To be frank, I agree," Mr. Witty said,...

Associated Press Government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems seen in children who have taken flu drugs made by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday released its safety review of Roche's Tamiflu and Glaxo's Relenza. Next week, an outside group of pediatric experts is scheduled to review the safety of several such drugs when used in children. FDA began reviewing Tamiflu's safety in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions. Twenty-five patients under age 21 have died while taking the drug, most of them in Japan. Five...

U.S. Seizes Batches of Two Glaxo Drugs Over Quality Friday March 4, 11:33 AM EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that officials had seized batches of GlaxoSmithKline Plc's (GSK) diabetes drug Avandamet and the controlled-release antidepressant Paxil CR because of concerns over manufacturing quality. The FDA said in a statement that the manufacturing practices for the two drugs failed to meet standards for safety, strength, quality and purity. However, the agency said it was not aware of any harm to consumers and did not believe there was a significant health hazard. Patients taking...

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued so many people based on so little legal authority that it's almost hard to get worked up about it anymore. But it's worth making an exception for his recent lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, because it threatens to damage good science and public health. Mr. Spitzer is going after British-based Glaxo for "concealing" information about its popular antidepressant medicine, Paxil. According to America's new self-anointed drug czar, Glaxo's crime is that it publicized one study showing Paxil had positive results in adolescents, but didn't advertise four studies that showed inconclusive results or suggested Paxil...

Glaxo chief: Our drugs do not work on most patients By Steve Connor, Science Editor 08 December 2003 A senior executive with Britain's biggest drugs company has admitted that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who take them. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them. It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs...

Glaxo chief: Our drugs do not work on most patients By Steve Connor, Science Editor 08 December 2003 A senior executive with Britain's biggest drugs company has admitted that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who take them. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them. It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs...

Prescription drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC asked Canadian pharmacies and wholesalers yesterday to "self-certify" that they're not exporting its drugs outside Canada. Pharmacies and wholesalers that fail to comply will have their Glaxo supplies cut off. In a Jan.3 letter, the British drug maker had warned Canadian pharmacies and wholesalers that it would cut off their supplies as of yesterday if they continued to sell Glaxo products outside Canada, primarily to the U.S. "GSK's products are approved by Health Canada for sale in Canada only," Glaxo had said, adding that Canadian pharmacies could be violating the company's patent rights and risk...