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NY Times reports Lilly promoted off-label; Lilly denies claims

Pharma Compliance Alert, December 20, 2006

Eli Lilly promoted off-label uses for the schizophrenia and bipolar disorder drug Zyprexa, The New York Times reported Monday. According to the article, a plaintiff's lawyer representing mentally ill patients supplied The Times with Lilly marketing documents that allegedly detail the Zyprexa promotion. The campaign, called Viva Zyprexa, encouraged sales reps to suggest that physicians prescribe the drug to older patients who showed symptoms of dementia, according to the report.

Eli Lilly objected to the claims. In a statement released Monday, the company said it does not engage in off-label promotion, and has clear guidelines and extensive training to make sure reps only promote FDA-approved information. Lilly also said that the Times failed to mention that the documents cited in the article made up a very small part of the 11 million pages of documents Lilly provided as part of the litigation, and that they do not accurately portray the company's conduct. Lilly called the plaintiffs' lawyer leak "illegal and selective disclosure." Read Lilly's full response here.

A separate New York Times article published Sunday said that Eli Lilly has for a decade attempted to play down the health risks of Zyprexa. That article, too, cited documents supplied by a lawyer representing mentally ill patients. The Times said that Eli Lilly withheld information from doctors about Zyprexa's links to obesity and elevated blood sugar, both diabetes risk factors.

In its response to that article, Eli Lilly countered that it has conducted more than 23 years of research about Zyprexa, and that Lilly, government bodies, and competitors' studies have not found a causal link to diabetes. Read Lilly's full response here.

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