Lilly Trained Sales Force to Ignore Risks Associated with Zyprexa
August 2nd, 2008Eat your happy pills, citizen!
Via: Bloomberg:
Eli Lilly & Co. trained its sales force to downplay risks for Zyprexa and encourage doctors to prescribe the drug beyond approved uses for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to court documents.
Lilly’s research showed some patients on Zyprexa gained as much as 80 pounds and that the incidence of high blood sugar at diabetes levels was 3.5 times higher than for placebos, according to documents filed in a lawsuit brought by the state of Alaska. Before those findings, doctors already saw a “logical link between weight gain and diabetes,” an instruction sheet advised the sales force in 2002.
“We believe it is essential to weaken this link to neutralize the diabetes/hyperglycemia issue,” the company said in the sales document, which was provided for the Alaska case. “Neutralizing any concern from our customers will be essential to the future growth of Zyprexa in the marketplace.”
Zyprexa became the company’s top-selling drug, with $4.76 billion in sales last year — about a quarter of Lilly’s revenue. Company sales representatives disputed or ignored the risks and pursued primary-care and nursing-home doctors as well as psychiatrists, according to documents in the Alaska case that were released July 29 after Bloomberg News filed a motion to unseal them.
Lilly agreed to pay $15 million to settle the Alaska suit in March. The company has paid about $1.2 billion to resolve claims brought by more than 31,000 patients who said they weren’t adequately warned Zyprexa could cause weight gain, diabetes or inflammation of the pancreas, Lilly spokeswoman Marni Lemons said July 8.
Gives new meaning to the term, “fat and happy”. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)