Researcher admits to leaking drug data

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Texas researcher admitted he had leaked a sensitive and controversial report about the heart risks of diabetes drug Avandia to its maker, GlaxoSmithKline, the journal Nature reported on Wednesday.

Steven Haffner of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio admitted he tipped off the company days before the report was due to be released, and a member of the U.S. Congress quickly launched an investigation.

"Why I sent it is a mystery," Haffner is quoted by Nature as saying. "I don't really understand it. I wasn't feeling well. It was bad judgment."

In May, Dr. Steve Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that his analysis of other studies suggested Avandia raised the risk of a heart attack by 43 percent.

The report set off a storm of controversy, round after round of regulatory meetings and lead to requirements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European regulators that Avandia carry strong warnings about the risks.

Haffner was one of those asked by the journal to "peer-review" the paper, a process under which experts in the field try to poke holes in the research and ask questions.

These reviewers promise to keep the research confidential until it is published.

Nature said Haffner faxed a copy of the study 17 days before it was published to Alexander Cobitz, a Glaxo employee he knew from working on an earlier clinical trial of the drug.