That’s what The Telegraph, one of the UK’s big newspapers, is reporting. The reason cited? The big drop in Avandia prescriptions written in the US ever since the May 21 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine pointed to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attacks.

Glaxo “is preparing a new marketing plan for Avandia after advisers to America’s powerful regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, said two weeks ago it should carry a warning about its risk of causing heart attacks in patients. Sources said that includes cutting its salesforce or reassigning reps to other drugs,” the Telegraph writes.

The paper goes on to cite an unnamed analyst suggesting Glaxo may have to cut its Avandia salesforce by about 500 in the US as a result. Glaxo “will be reluctant to scale back the marketing it puts into one of its key drugs, but it is almost inevitable it will do so, sources said,” the Telegraph writes. There was no indication whether these unnamed sources are inside the drugmaker.

There was also this comment from Chris Viehbacher, president of Glaxo’s US pharma biz:: “Our immediate focus is to reinforce physician confidence in both the safety and benefits of Avandia…We fully support Avandia in the US and have no immediate plans for staff reductions due to Avandia issues.”

Glaxo, in fact, is promoting Avandia to regain lost ground. Last week, the drugmaker publicized a study that contradicts the New England Journal meta-analysis, and its sales reps were detailing docs more frequently following the July 30 meeting at which an FDA panel recommended Avandia remain on the market, albeit with new warnings and restrictions.