The brief also cites a case that says, "It is well settled law that the harm caused by loss of trade secrets cannot be measured in monetary damages."
The conduct revealed by the Times could not possibly constitute protected trade secrets by any stretch of the imagination. Since when did teaching sales reps how to convince doctors to prescribe drugs off-label, for uses never intended, become a trade secret?
And since when is it a trade secret for a company to conceal the lethal side effects of a drug for 10 years, knowing full well that millions of people are at risk of being injured or killed?
What "irreparable harm" could come to Lilly that would justify allowing even one more person to take Zyprexa without full knowledge of the health risks linked to the drug?
Granted, the loss of what Lilly is trying to claim are "trade secrets" might lead to monetary damages, as it well knows. So far, to keep these "trade secrets" buried during the first 2 rounds of litigation, the company agreed to fork out more than $1 billion to Zyprexa victims who were willing to sign gag orders and remain silent, but thousands more are waiting in the wings for the start of round three.
When reviewing the court's broad injunctions, it is impossible to figure out what happened to Judge Weinstein since he wrote the book, Individual Justice in Mass Tort Litigation (2005), in which he could have been discussing the Lilly-Zyprexa-Document saga when he stated:
"A publicly maintained legal system ought not protect those who engage in misconduct, conceal the cause of injury from the victims, or render potential victims vulnerable. Moreover, such secrecy defeats the deterrent function of the justice system."
The doctors listed in the injunction have all authored books, studies, or papers in many different publications on issues related to the information revealed in the Lilly documents. The chilling effect of the court's orders is most obvious as it applies to these doctors.
In addition to their own journalistic writings, they have been quoted as experts by this author, and many others, in countless articles related to psychiatric drugs long before the new Lilly documents surfaced, yet they are now barred from discussing anything about the secret documents with this journalist or anyone else.
Dr Cohen is the author or co-author of over fifty articles in publications such as the American Journal of Psychiatry, Ethical Human Sciences and Services, and the Encyclopedia of Psychology, as well as twelve books and monographs.
Getting the court to muzzle Dr Kruszewski was a major victory for Lilly. He is on record telling this author early last year that Zyprexa increased the risk of obesity, diabetes type II, hypertension, heart attacks and stroke, "at the same time that it continues to cause neurological side-effects like the older antipsychotics."
And furthermore, he is quoted as saying Lilly knew about these health risks for years and failed to warn the public, in articles published months before the new documents emerged to validate his assertions.
Dr Jackson, author of, Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs, is definitely not on Lilly's Xmas card list either. In addition to the book and papers she has written, in 2003, she reviewed documents obtained under the FOIA, regarding to the FDA's approval of Zyprexa, and provided written and oral testimony under oath in a lawsuit about the statistical manipulation used by Lilly when obtaining FDA approval for the drug.
Ms Chamberlin has been an author, lecturer, and activist in the field of patients' rights for many years, and sits on the board of MindFreedom International, a coalition of about 100 advocacy groups in 13 countries that provides the public with information on all the latest safety issues and legal developments as they relate to psychiatric drugs.
Investigative journalist and author of, Mad in America, Robert Whitaker, likely holds the number one spot on Lilly's hit list of despised journalists. Lilly's legal team is probably still celebrating the victory of getting his name added to the injunction.
The lack of friendship between Bob and Lilly dates back to November 1998, when he wrote a series titled "Doing Harm: Research on the mentally ill," that was published on the front page of the Boston Globe, and reported that in pre-marketing clinical trials, Zyprexa was linked to life-threatening adverse effects in 22% of the adult patients tested.
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