Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9263

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Publication type: news

Groppe M.
Senator to Lilly: Turn over Zyprexa files
Indianapolis Star 2007 Apr 5
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/BUSINESS/704050483/-1/ZONES04

Full text:

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee has asked Eli Lilly and Co. to turn over documents related to the safety and marketing of its blockbuster antipsychotic drug Zyprexa.

Zyprexa is at the center of lawsuits by patients, states and shareholders over whether Lilly knew Zyprexa could trigger diabetes in some people and whether Lilly marketed Zyprexa for unapproved purposes.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a letter to the Indianapolis drug maker that he has an obligation to ensure taxpayers’ money is spent properly on safe and effective treatments for those receiving medications through Medicare and Medicaid.

The Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over government health-care programs for the elderly, poor and disabled. The committee’s chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., did not sign the letter.
Lilly spokeswoman Tarra Ryker said the company is “going to cooperate with the committee’s request.”
Grassley is interested in the records Lilly generated for the product-liability lawsuits. Grassley, who has been active on drug-safety issues and was head of the Finance Committee until Democrats took control of Congress this year, tried to get those materials in December from Dr. David Egilman, an expert witness for the plaintiffs.

A federal judge ruled in February that Egilman was involved in getting Lilly’s documents into the hands of a New York Times reporter who used them last year for a series of critical stories about Zyprexa. Egilman and others were barred from further disseminating the materials.

Grassley said the committee did not receive any of the litigation materials from Egilman, and he would like Lilly to turn them over by April 25.

In separate settlements in 2005 and this year, Lilly has paid more than $1.1 billion to settle more than 26,000 claims that the company hid the risks of weight gain or diabetes from using Zyprexa, its best-selling drug. About 1,200 individual claims remain unsettled.

A shareholder suit was filed last week, claiming Lilly’s stock lost billions in market value while Lilly settled product liability lawsuits over Zyprexa.