Judge urges Eli Lilly to settle Zyprexa suit
Pharma Compliance Alert, July 9, 2008
The legal woes for Eli Lilly and its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa continue.
Eli Lilly has already paid $1 billion to settle personal injury lawsuits by people who claimed the company hid the side effects of Zyprexa. In March, Lilly and the state of Alaska announced a $15 million settlement in a lawsuit over the use of Zyprexa in the state’s Medicaid program. Lilly is also facing lawsuits from several other states.
Now a federal judge is urging Lilly to negotiate a worldwide settlement for a lawsuit filed by insurance companies, unions, and others who claim Eli Lilly overpriced Zyprexa and exaggerated its usefulness. The plaintiffs are seeking as much as $7.7 billion.
U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein said he is prepared to grant class-action status to the lawsuit brought by Mid-West National Life Insurance Co. of Tennessee and others. He said the case against Eli Lilly is strong enough to warrant a trial and that Lilly may have excessively encouraged questionable uses of Zyprexa, according to Weinstein’s draft order.
“There is evidence that off-label use of Zyprexa was excessive and may have been encouraged by Lilly,” Weinstein said in his draft order.
Eli Lilly’s general counsel Michael Harrington denied the company promoted Zyprexa for off-label uses in an Indianapolis Star article. He added that Eli Lilly would appeal if the draft opinion is entered as a final order. Harrington also said the $7.7 billion the plaintiffs asked for was designed to get people’s attention and the company would not pay that much money, according to the Star.
No trial date has been set, but Weinstein said he hoped the sides could reach an agreement “as soon as possible so that government, the medical profession, and drug manufacturers can get on with their main job, protecting the people’s health effectively at the cheapest practicable cost.”
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