Conflicts of interest revealed in FDA panel that voted to keep Avandia on the market

A few days ago, I reported that an FDA penal surprisingly voted to keep the diabetes drug Avandia on the market. In separate stories, it has not been reported that two different members of the panel had clear conflicts of interest and should not have been allowed to remain on the panel. One panel member had been a speaker for GlaxoSmithKline (Avandia's manufacturer) and had been paid $8,000 through 2008 and another $3,000 earlier this year. Another member of the panel was a paid speaker for Takeda Pharmaceutical, which sells Avandia's rival drug Actos. For more on this topic go here, here and here.