Thursday, December 21, 2006
More Questions Based on Eli Lilly Zyprexa Documents
Another investigative article in the New York Times about Eli Lilly's conduct with Zyprexa -- Disparity Emerges in Lilly Data on Schizophrenia Drug, by Alex Berenson:
For at least a year, Eli Lilly provided information to doctors about the blood-sugar risks of its drug Zyprexa that did not match data that the company circulated internally when it first reviewed its clinical trial results, according to company documents.
The original results showed that patients on Zyprexa, Lilly’s pill for schizophrenia, were 3.5 times as likely to experience high blood sugar levels as those taking a placebo, according to a February 2000 memo sent to top Lilly scientists. The memo is one of hundreds of internal Lilly documents provided to The New York Times by a lawyer in Alaska who represents mentally ill patients.
But the results that Lilly eventually provided to doctors until at least late 2001 were very different. Those results indicated that patients taking Zyprexa were only slightly more likely to suffer high blood sugar as those taking a placebo, or an inactive pill.
Another Lilly report, from November 1999, shows that Lilly found after examining 70 clinical trials that 16 percent of patients taking Zyprexa for a year gained more than 66 pounds.
The company did not publicly disclose that figure, instead focusing on data from a smaller group of clinical trials that showed about 30 percent of patients gained 22 pounds.
BGS
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/mass_tort_litigation/2006/12/more_questions_.html
Comments
My son managed for many years on lithium; a cheap, generic drug that is the only proven drug for manic depression. In 2000, he went on Maryland Medicaid and was given Zyprexa. "Safe, safe" said the doctor, and we foolishly believed him. Maybe he even thought this was true himself. Two years and 100 pounds later, my son went into a coma and died, a victim of profound hyperglycemia.
I want to commit mayhem that my son's life was devalued for a handful of shekels. When I was a child, I was taught that the love of money was the root of all evil.
Here is the living proof of that.
Posted by: Ellen Liversidge | Feb 8, 2007 5:41:13 AM
Zyprexa zenith to zonked
On November 28, 2001, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a letter written by Dr. Elizabeth Koller, an FDA medical officer, Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, a Duke University psychiatrist warning that according to FDA's MedWatch data, patients taking either olanzapine or clozapine were 10 times more likely to become diabetic than the general population. [JAMA Vol. 286 No. 20.]
The black box warning was put up too late mates
At a glance,zyprexa was promoted 'off label' to uses that weren't FDA approved.This opens up a can of worms for patients like myself took it for PTSD for which it was ineffective and moreover gave me diabetes.
True,leaked documents don't convey the 'whole picture' but what is compelling is that zyprexa is the 7th some say 5th largest drug sell in the world and Eli Lilly's #1 drug sale by their own admission.
This is for a drug that won't get you "high" cost $2.50 a pill and only indicated for less than 1% of the population.
Hello! Somebody in Lilly land is pushing zyprexa hard-Daniel Haszard
Posted by: Daniel Haszard | Dec 22, 2006 10:54:14 AM