Consumer Law

Documents Show Lilly Marketed Zyprexa for Dementia, Knowing It Did No Good

By Andy Hoffman

Regular readers of ThePopTort may recall that in February, we ran a piece suggesting that drug companies were fast becoming America?s ?new bottom-feeders,? displacing the likes of say, telemarketers as society?s number one social pariahs.  Well, this next item sort of takes that premise to the next level?and then some.

A group of insurers is currently enmeshed in a nasty legal tussle with drug giant Eli Lilly over the company?s illegal ?off label? marketing of the anti-psychotic drug, Zyprexa.  If you?re having déjà vu about now, that?s probably because the company has been in similar trouble before, downplaying the fact that the drug could cause significant weight gain and diabetes, while employing a variety of nefarious tactics  to convince doctors to prescribe the stuff to elderly people to help alleviate dementia, sleep troubles and irritability (even though it knew the drug didn?t work for those conditions).

But what makes this latest courtroom drama so interesting is that U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein ordered the release of  internal Eli Lilly documents that illustrate just how far the company was willing to go to defraud the public in its efforts to make Zyprexa a ?$6 billion? drug.

For example, documents reveal ?Lilly employees compiled a guide to hiring scientists to write favorable articles, complained to journal editors when publication was delayed and submitted rejected articles to other outlets.?

And despite the fact that various internal studies ?didn?t find Zyprexa was effective in treating dementia,? but did find ?death rates among older dementia patients on Zyprexa...were two times higher than their counterparts taking placebos,? Lilly continued marketing to seniors, as they were the ?2nd biggest money producing segment? of Zyprexa sales.

In one particularly disgusting 2002 email exchange, Lilly researcher Peter Feldman told the company?s global marketing director, Denice Torres, that Lilly intended to stop studying Zyprexa?s potential benefits for elderly people because doing so would risk ?killing the goose that lays the golden eggs to save on poultry feed costs.?  Torres concurred, emphasizing how ?elderly? customers remained an important ?focus? of the company?s marketing efforts.

In yet another email, marketing executives advised sales people to downplay the weight gain associated with Zyprexa by characterizing it as a ?manageable side-effect,? and to ?continue to address the diabetes concern only when it arises.?  The document then went on to urge its readers: ?Get back to selling!?

Full post as published by ThePopTort on June 12, 2009 (boomark / email).