GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the popular diabetes drug Avandia, may soon be facing Avandia lawsuits by a large number of injured patients, according to Avandia lawyers. The company’s total liability in these lawsuits may run into the tens of billions of dollars, in the view of some Avandia lawyers.

The May 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine featured a study which found that people who had used Avandia were 64% more likely to suffer heart-related death and 43% more likely to have a heart attack, as compared with other patients. Dr. Steven Nissen, the study’s lead author, analyzed the results of dozens of clinical trials of Avandia users and patients who took other diabetes drugs or a placebo.

Avandia attorneys claim to have fielded a number of calls from patients who suffered the side effects of Avandia and are pondering lawsuits. Based on the data and its interpretation in the NEJM study, Avandia lawyers believe they can prove that using Avandia to treat their diabetes was what injured these people.

As one Avandia lawyer puts it, “If the increased risk of cardiac death is as high as [the study] suggests, it should be possible to draw the connection to cardiac events, especially patients who had not had previous history of heart disease or heart attacks.”