GlaxoSmithKline settling first Avandia suits for $60 million

GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay about $60 million in the first settlements of lawsuits alleging the company's Avandia diabetes drug causes heart attacks and strokes in some users, people familiar with the accords said.

Glaxo, Britain's biggest drugmaker, agreed to resolve more than 700 Avandia suits filed by three attorneys, they said. The settlements come as Glaxo is set to face its first Avandia trial in state court in Philadelphia in July. The company faces about 4,000 lawsuits that have been filed so far over the drug.

Glaxo officials declined to comment on the settlements. They noted the company continues to prepare for trials over Avandia scheduled for this year.

"GlaxoSmithKline stands by Avandia and is fully prepared to defend any litigation," Bernadette King, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.

Regulators approved Avandia for sale in the United States in 1999 and the medicine generated annual revenue of $3 billion by 2006, including sales of a combination of Avandia and another drug.

Avandia sales plunged after a May 2007 report in the New England Journal of Medicine linked the drug to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attacks, prompting U.S. and European regulators to order Glaxo to strengthen its warnings.

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing Avandia's safety and will present its findings to an advisory committee in July, officials said.