Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7989

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Sharav V.
Zyprexa Litigation Hearing Judge Jack Weinstein-Jan 17 2007
Alliance for Human Research Protection 2007 Jan 25
http://ahrp.blogspot.com/2007/01/zyprexa-litigation-hearing-judge-jack.html

Full text:

The saga of the Eli Lilly-Zyprexa documents illustrates how badly the public interest is served when lawyers representing plaintiffs and lawyers representing a pharmaceutical company, essentially collude to keep incriminating documents concealed from prescribing physicians and the public.

Sealed settlements in product litigation involving life-threatening risks of harm—such as the harms posed by Zyprexa—pose a public health hazard. We believe, in such cases sealed settlements should be outlawed.

The decision to seal pharmaceutical company documents should not be left to lawyers who negotiate merely for the $ amount of the settlement.

The magnitude of harm linked to Zyprexa—as recorded in Lilly’s own documents—must not remain under seal because the concealment of those risks poses a grave and present danger to the lives of millions of consumers who may exposed to the drug and suffer irreversible harm.

Not only have thousands of consumers already been harmed—as documented in Lilly’s billion dollar + settlements—but thousands more will be harmed because physicians don’t know the full scope and magnitude of the risks disclosed in the sealed documents.