A week after GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) reached a $3 billion federal settlement over claims it illegally marketed Avandia and other drugs, the drugmaker now faces pressure to resolve the thousands of Avandia patient lawsuits that remain.Judge Cynthia Rufe, U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, appointed a mediator to oversee settlement negotiations for Avandia [...]

GlaxoSmithKline took a loss in the fourth quarter of 2010 but the company’s stock still managed to climb in trading Thursday. The company announced a stock buyback program that pleases investors, even as the company cuts back on R&D spending for new drugs.

GlaxoSmithKline has settled its first case involving former diabetes blockbuster Avandia, but it will most certainly not be the last word on the matter.

GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia problems are resulting in the company setting aside $3.4 billion to pay for legal costs related to its former diabetes drug, which has been linked to greater cardiovascular risks. Though the drug is now scarce in the European and U.S. markets thanks to greater regulatory scrutiny, GSK faces mounting expenses as Avandia legal claims continue to be filed.

Defunding by Congress and implementation by governors are the two major threats facing healthcare reform, Tom Daschle, former U.S. Senate majority leader who almost became Department of Health and Human Services nomination in the Obama administration, tells Kaiser Health News.

McDonald’s Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul, reports the Wall Street Journal.

What does Cleveland Clinic cardiologist (and Avandia whistleblower) Steven Nissen have to say about Thursday’s Food and Drug Administration decision to allow diabetes drug Avandia to stay on the market with significant restrictions? “I think it’s a reasonable course of action and compromise. It will limit 99 percent of its use,” Nissen told the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

Swiss drugmaker Novartis just got Food and Drug Administration approval to sell the first pill that can slow the progression of multiple sclerosis. Gilenya will go head-to-head with injectable medicines, including Avonex, Tysabri and Rebif. But how much will the MS pill cost? Novartis won’t say, NPR reports.

The British Medical Journal today raised more questions about whether diabetes drug Avandia should ever have been approved for patients in the United States and Europe, and whether the drug “may be about to fold.”

The two researchers whose claims of injury led a federal judge to ban research using human embryonic stem cells late Monday have a history of disputes with colleagues as well as ethical objections to embryonic stem cell research, according to the New York Times.