One of the three panelists who recommended that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allow GlaxoSmithKline to continue marketing Avandia with no further restrictions is a paid speaker for the drug company, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper is reporting that endocrinologist David Capuzzi of Philadelphia was paid $14,750 to promote London-based GSK’s (NYSE: GSK) Lovaza. The Journal reports that Capuzzi said he informed the FDA of that arrangement and that he has given no talks regarding Avandia.
Capuzzi was one of 33 experts convened by the FDA last week to make a recommendation on whether the regulatory agency should pull the diabetes drug from the market. Avandia has been linked to a 43 percent increase in heart attacks, and GSK, which has its North American headquarters in Research Triangle Park and employs about 5,000 across the Triangle, reportedly paid $460 million to settle 10,000 lawsuits related to the drug.
The panel voted 20-12, with one abstention, to allow GSK to continue selling the drug, albeit with stricter regulation and warning labels. Capuzzi was one of three individuals on the panel who saw no need for stricter regulations.
The revelations about Capuzzi’s speaking deal come as the National Institutes of Health, the primary backer for medical research in the U.S., works to strengthen its ethics and conflict of interest policies to prevent medical researchers who are paid to speak by drug companies from lending their expertise in research studies. The NIH and FDA operate under different guidelines.