Eli Lilly The Habitual Offender

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By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 3 of 3 page(s)

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In the case of Zyprexa, Lilly has so far settled with an estimated 26,000 plaintiffs, at a cost of over $1 billion. The incriminating documents leaked to the press last month, came to light during litigation with these plaintiffs but even after the litigation was settled, they were kept under seal with a court order.

Since the documents were made public, Lilly's legal team has spent about every other day in court trying to silence the messengers, Dr David Egilman and Jim Gottstein, and get the incriminating evidence back under seal, albeit without much success.

In a January 15, 2007, legal filing, a Lilly attorney quotes a comment by Judge Brian Cogan in a previous court hearing who said, Mr Gottstein had "deliberately and knowingly aided and abetted Dr. David Egilman's breach of CMO-3."

A responsive filing from Mr Gottstein should say that by issuing a protective order to suppress these documents to begin with, the court deliberately and knowingly aided and abetted Lilly in the off-label sale of Zyprexa by concealing the drug's side effects from tens of millions of consumers and prescribing physicians.

The secret documents show that Lilly concealed information about Zyprexa's link to severe weight gain, high blood sugar, and diabetes for a decade and because Lilly promoted Zyprexa off-label for so many uses, more than 20 million people have taken the drug. It is Lilly's best-selling product, with sales of about $30 billion since its arrival on the market in 1996, according to the January 20, 2007, New York Times.

In the latest development in the Zyprexa saga, last week Illinois and Vermont joined a coordinated five-state investigation of Lilly's marketing practices.

"The states are investigating whether Lilly tried to hide Zyprexa's risk of causing weight gain and other risks associated with diabetes and whether the company promoted Zyprexa for use in patients who do not have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder," the Times reports.

The larger question would seem to be, were the roughly 26,000 plaintiffs who entered into out-of-court settlements aware of the contents of the hidden documents and did they understand that by settling out of court Lilly would be permitted to keep the information secret knowing full well that more victims would be injured or killed by Zyprexa?

Information for injured parties can be found at Lawyers and Settlements.com
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com:80/articles/zyprexa-misconduct.html

Evelyn Pringle
evelyn-pringle@sbcglobal.net

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