Glaxo is turning up the volume. Thanks to this post yesterday, we are all aware Glaxo's media department has been busy spinning the news on Avandia. Now they are spinning the RECORD study -- quite differently from critics. Preliminary results of the study were released today via an editorial in the New England Medical Journal, one day before today's Congressional investigation of the FDA. Opponents contend the FDA ignored heart risks associated with Avandia.

Interim analysis of RECORD reports an 2.15 increase in heart failure for Avandia-takers, but no increased risk in the death rate for heart attack or stroke. Glaxo's Chief Medical Officer, Ron Krall, claims the results are reassuring and compares Avandia's safety profile to other type 2 medications on the market.

Critics have an entirely different opinion on the RECORD analysis (thank goodness someone else is weighing in). In the editorial, Dr. David Nathan, director of the diabetes center at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital, states there is not enough evidence to implicate or clear Avandia and too many people have dropped out of the study. Nathan recommends doctors STOP prescribing Avandia as it might increase severe cardiovascular events and death by 8 percent. Did you hear that? Stop prescribing Avandia altogether.

New Avandia prescriptions from May 25-June 1 have dropped 16 percent, while total prescriptions have dropped 6 percent. No wonder Glaxo has jumped into the deejay booth, can you imagine the money at stake? Here is the full story in Bloomberg.