Legal News

Eli Lilly in Advanced Talks With Feds over Zyprexa Probe

By Ashby Jones

Oh, to be an in-house lawyer for big Pharma. Busy busy busy times. The latest: Eli Lilly and federal prosecutors are discussing a settlement of a civil and criminal investigation into the company’s marketing of Zyprexa, an antipsychotic drug. The settlement could end in Lilly’s paying more than $1 billion to federal and state governments, which would be the largest fine ever paid by a drug company for violating federal laws on drug promotion. Here are stories from the NYT and the WSJ.

Zyprexa, Lilly’s most profitable product with sales of $4.8 billion last year, is approved to treat people with schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder. But documents from Eli Lilly show that the company has encouraged doctors to prescribe Zyprexa to people with age-related dementia, as well as people with mild bipolar disorder.

The fine would be in addition to $1.2 billion that Lilly has already paid to settle 30,000 lawsuits from people who claim that Zyprexa caused them to develop diabetes or other diseases, two of the most significant side effect.

The Zyprexa situation crossed our radar screen early last year, when Judge Jack Weinstein castigated a plaintiffs’ expert, an Alaska lawyer and a New York Times reporter for attempting to circumvent a protective order concerning internal Lilly documents. Those documents led to a lengthy NYT article at the end of 2006 outlining Lilly’s marketing efforts for the drug.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 31, 2008 (boomark / email).