Glaxo's Avandia in spotlight at diabetes meet

By Kim Dixon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Controversy over the popular diabetes pill Avandia is taking centre stage among the world's experts on the disease on Monday, where researchers are debating findings that the drug could boost heart-attack risk.

The GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) drug has been under a cloud since an analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month found that taking Avandia led to a 43 percent boost in heart attack risk and a 64 percent rise in risk of heart death.

U.S. regulators have since asked for stiffer warnings on Avandia and a similar drug called Actos, for another heart condition, congestive heart failure. Some 60 million prescriptions have been written for Avandia, which generates about $3 billion (1.5 billion pounds) in annual sales for Glaxo. Sales have dropped sharply since the report.

The report by Cleveland Clinic's cardiology chief, Steven Nissen, has sparked debate because it is an analysis that looked back at dozens of studies.

Nissen's study of the drug, known generically as rosiglitazone, is based on conclusions from pooled data of 42 trials involving nearly 28,000 patients.

"The remaining question is, if you take a study not designed to look at heart attacks, can you make a conclusion?" said John Buse, chief of endocrinology at the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and president-elect of the diabetes group.

Nissen will headline a panel later on Monday at the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) annual meeting, attended by about 13,000 doctors and researchers.

Diabetes is a chronic disease in which the pancreas is unable to produce enough of or properly use the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar. The drug treats type II diabetes -- the most common form of the disease that afflicts about 180 million people worldwide.