The recently triggered allegations of legal maneuvering and internal struggles at the Food and Drug Administration is scheduled Tuesday to be pondered over in a tabling of a panel of outside medical experts to debate whether the agency should pull diabetes drug Avandia from the U.S. market.

The list of panel members includes one of Avandia's most high-profile critics, Dr Steve Nissen, who has been reported to express full confidence in the drug, promising to defend the drug during tomorrow’s tabling.

Avandia has been associated to a boosted risk of heart-attack by some researchers.

The meeting on Tuesday could eventually redefine the drug’s fate, depending on FDA’s new stand on the drug-safety concerns, specifically involving products already present in the retail sector.

The two-day meeting involving an expert panel will witness pondering over on an array of evidence to consider Avandia link to boosted risk of heart problems, prior to its decision on the drug’s retailing.

Avandia has been at the center of controversy for nearly three years. An FDA advisory committee was first organized in 2007 with a view to consider Avandia's safety following a research spearheaded by Dr. Nissen, which claimed that the pill is likely to render one at a higher risk of heart attack.

The meeting ended with a 22-1 vote to keep it on the market.