Glaxo Gains on FDA Nod

Updated from 10:46 a.m. EDT

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK Quote) said Thursday that it expects to return to marketing big-selling drugs in the U.S. by midyear after having signed a consent decree with the federal government to improve its manufacturing practices.

Early last month, the Food and Drug Administration seized batches of the antidepressant Paxil CR and the diabetes drug Avandamet, saying GlaxoSmithKline repeatedly failed to correct problems at a manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico.

Although the FDA said it wasn't aware of any patients being injured by the drugs, the agency said it took the rare move because the company hadn't acted quickly to fix problems that had been cited during inspections in 2003 and 2004. ...