GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical group, has launched efforts to revive its lagging diabetes medicine Avandia with a new study that downplays concerns over its cardiac side effects.

The findings of its Record study, released at the annual conference of the American Diabetes Association, showed cardiovascular hospitalisation and death were similar in patients taking Avandia (known generically as rosiglitazone) compared with those receiving the alternative treatments metformin and sulfonylurea.