The Zyprexa Chronicles: Lilly Responds

On Saturday, Eli Lilly issued a statement responding to the New York Times article calling into question whether the company has been completely forthright about side-effects of Zyprexa:

"Said Steven Paul, M.D., Lilly's executive vice president of science and technology, 'We believe it is critical to physicians and patients that Lilly state some important and relevant facts about our lifesaving medication Zyprexa that are missing from the New York Times article'."

Read their press release for Eli Lilly's accounting of the situation. I take up various issues around the situation in the post following this one.

Three points. First, for the company to attack the release of these documents as "illegal" is lame. As far as I know, the lawyer who released them to the New York Times was not bound by any legal restrictions in sharing these documents with the public. But, perhaps, there is a fine legal point here that I am not aware of.

Second, if Eli Lilly is concerned about its documents and how they are being used in the media, then the company should flat out release all the documents in the class action case it settled in 2005. Let the public decide for itself.

Third, Dr. Paul stated the following in the release:

"[I]t (Zyprexa) has been used by more than 20 million people worldwide, and doctors continue to prescribe it to deal with some of the most terrible mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder." (Emphasis mine.)

Look, everyone knows that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are not a party. But to continue to paint patients as somehow terrible for being diagnosed with a mental illness verges on hate speech, because it creates in our culture an unfounded belief that we are dangerous. At best, such talk is stupid, especially since it contains a value judgment. Why mental health advocates let corporations get away with such talk is beyond me. But then a lot of things are beyond me in the mental health world.

I have lived with bipolar disorder for over 17 years. I've done pretty well for myself--no thanks to Prozac, though--and resent having doctors, researchers and Big Pharma describe me and my condition as terrible. You guys just have no idea what human determination can do in the face of mental illness. But that's because you never study what makes people tick who do well. You ought to. You might be surprised.

And, Dr. Paul: you owe me an apology. You also owe it to millions of Americans diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.