The Zyprexa Chronicles: Lilly Pushed For Off-Label Use Of Drug, Busted By Times

As I suspected in my first posts (which I wrote Sunday afternoon), there would be more revelations forthcoming about Eli Lilly's behavior around Zyprexa. Here's one revelation from a second New York Times article:

"Eli Lilly encouraged primary care physicians to use Zyprexa, a powerful drug for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in patients who did not have either condition, according to internal Lilly marketing materials."

Read on, please.

According to Alex Berenson's article, Lilly instructed sales reps working with general practitioners and internists (and likely gerontologists) to push the drug's use in dementia, a condition for which it was not approved. Pushing off-label use is a no-no. As in illegal. But Pharma does it all the time, the wink-and-nod relationship that goes on between docs and sales reps every day. If Berenson's assertions prove out, then this is huge. I wonder his documents show about Lilly's behavior about the use of Zyprexa in treating bipolar disorder prior to the drug's approval for use in treating acute mania.

As I've noted before, other atypicals have also been used in dementia patients and there have been studies establishing a higher than normal death rate in patients using the drug. As well, AstraZeneca reps in the Seattle area have done a lot of winking-and-nodding as well with doctors in the area. In addition, I have to wonder how all these docs prescribing atypicals to kids got put onto the drugs in the first place. Not that a sales rep would ever do anything unethical. Cheerleaders stick to the dance routine!

Alex Berenson is my new favorite reporter.