Pharmaceutical company may have to pay billion dollar settlement

According to diabetes news, the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline may have to pay as much as 1 billion dollars to settle side-effect claims regarding their diabetic medication Avandia . The first legal cases concerning the drug are currently on the verge of being settled.
Some 700 plaintiffs have banded together, and the diabetes drug company will likely settle out of court for around 60 million dollars. Andrew Witty, the chief executive of GSK, is looking to close cases as soon as possible.
However, with the potential for some 13,000 lawsuits in total, Glaxo may face a final settlement fee in excess of 1 billion dollars. This estimate is in itself lower than some previous forecasts of up to 6 billion dollars. A clinical trial regarding the safety of the drug is still underway.