On February 13, 2007, Judge Jack Weinstein issued a permanent injunction, prohibiting attorney, Jim Gottstein, and Dr David Egilman, an expert witness in litigation involving Zyprexa, from further disseminating certain Eli Lilly documents that were sealed with a court order until Mr Gottstein released them to the media in December 2006.
After reviewing the documents as a plaintiff's expert in the underlying Zyprexa litigation, Dr Egilman became so alarmed over what he found that as a doctor, he believed he had an obligation to find a way to make the information public.
In an effort to get the documents out from under the court order, Attorney Gottstein subpoenaed Dr Egilman for a deposition in a lawsuit unrelated to the Zyprexa case and asked him to send the documents for review ahead of the actual deposition date.
As soon as Mr Gottstein received the documents he provided copies to reporter, Alex Berenson, at the New York Times, along with a number of other journalists and patient rights activists and groups.
Mr Gottstein argues that the public has a right to know the truth about the risks associated with the drug. "The files show that the manufacturer hid vital information about the drug's safety," he states, "not only from patients, but also from doctors."
"Zyprexa has killed and permanently sickened thousands of people who have taken it," he says.
Mr Gottstein openly admits that he wanted to get the information out to save lives. "The bottom line is patient safety," he said.
The documents quoted by Mr Berenson in articles for the Times, showed that Lilly had concealed Zyprexa's links to weight gain, high blood sugar, and diabetes for a decade.
The documents also reveal that Lilly trained its sales representatives to increase prescriptions for Zyprexa by influencing doctors to prescribe it for off-label conditions, and with patient populations such as children, for uses that have never been tested or approved by FDA.
Zyprexa is an antipsychotic approved for the limited use of treating adults diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and yet it is currently Lilly's number one selling product with sales over $4 billion last year and 20 million people have taken the drug.
To date, Lilly has paid about $1.2 billion to settle roughly 28,000 lawsuits out of court filed on behalf of persons who were injured or died after taking Zyprexa. However, another batch of plaintiffs is already lined for the next round of litigation.
A secret document not cited in the Times, shows exactly what was going on behind the scenes to prevent a freefall in Zyprexa sales when Lilly knew for sure that the FDA was going to order a black box warning on Zyprexa about diabetes and the American Diabetes Association was also ready to release a statement on the issue.
A July 7, 2003, Lilly memo titled, "Diabetes Update," said that a way to get doctors to keep prescribing Zyprexa when news of the diabetes risk did come out was to legally indemnify doctors who prescribed it. "Indemnification represents the most meaningful demonstration of confidence in Zyprexa--both with our customers and with our employees," the Update stated.
"We must embrace the fact that many physicians are curtailing their use of Zyprexa (particularly in the moderately-ill patient and in the maintenance phase)," the memo said, "solely on the basis of personal fear (of being sued)."
In translation, that comment means doctors might curtail the use of Zyprexa with patients who may not need it because they are no longer psychotic, whereas Lilly tries to convince doctors to keep patients on Zyprexa for life as a maintenance program.
Lilly apparently pulled this indemnifying stunt with doctors when the truth about the risks of Prozac leaked out from documents also sealed with a court order. "Our experience with Prozac," the memo states, "confirms the impact and goodwill of such an initiative."
Recent development:FDA BLOWS ZYPREXA WHISTLE
Eli Lilly drug company is being sued by AG's in 7 states for fraud over marketing of their Zyprexa drug.
The zyprexa saga just keeps getting deeper.
It was Lilly that is alleged to have indulged in the excesses of it's 'viva zyprexa' extravaganza.Zyprexa off label promotion scandal is all over the news now.
Eli Lilly zyprexa cost me over $250.00 a month supply out of my own pocket X 4 years and has up to ten times the risk (over non users) of causing diabetes and severe weight gain.
Zyprexa which is only FDA approved for schizophrenia (.5-1% of pop) and some bipolar (2% pop) and then an even smaller percentage of theses two groups.
So how does Zyprexa get to be the 7th largest drug sale in the world?
Eli Lilly is in deep trouble for using their drug reps to 'encourage' doctors to write zyprexa for non-FDA approved 'off label' uses.
The drug causes increased diabetes risk,and medicare picks up all the expensive fallout.There are now 7 states (and counting) going after Lilly for fraud and restitution.
It's good to see the FDA stepping in.
EXTRA-*ELI LILLY PROBED SADDAM BRIBES* IS BREAKING NEWS
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Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com
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Danny Haszard (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 61 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Feb 14, 2007 at 9:03:25 PM
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