Furious Seasons

June 13, 2007

The Zyprexa Chronicles: Lilly Settles For Settlements Again

Eli Lilly, maker of Zyprexa, has settled another 900 lawsuits against itself by patients alleging that the company downplayed risks associated with the drug. This comes five months after Lilly settled a second round of lawsuits for $500 million and swore up and down that any remaining suits would be vigorously defended. Financial details of the settlements were not revealed, but I'd estimate them to be between $50 million to $100 million. That would bring Lilly's total for Zyprexa settlements to about $1.3 billion.

The company did not admit any wrongdoing. It told the Indianapolis Star:

"'While we continue to believe we would have prevailed had we gone to trial, resolving these claims will help Lilly return its focus to addressing unmet medical needs for patients and physicians,' said Michael J. Harrington, Lilly's deputy general counsel, in a statement."

Given how the company handled Prozac lawsuits, I'd call this folding their hand and moving on. About 750 lawsuits remain to be resolved. Still outstanding are lawsuits by eight states and a pending Congressional investigation. We'll see if any other states attorneys general file lawsuits against the company.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at June 13, 2007 09:55 AM

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Comments

As a former Zyprexa "client," this is good news indeed. I think we all owe a round of applause to Alaska's Jim Gottstein of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (www.psychrights.org) for bringing this issue to the forefront. What an absolutely horrible drug! I gained 60 pounds in a matter of months on it and couldn't shake the excess weight for many months afterward.

Posted by: Francesca Allan at June 13, 2007 10:38 AM

http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2007/04/gottstein_gets_award.html

Posted by: Mark(p.s.2) at June 13, 2007 11:14 AM

One has to wonder why there are so few plaintiffs in relationship to the number of individuals who likely have standing. For example, Utah’s Attorney General claims 1500 adult Medicaid enrollees took Zyprexa and developed diabetes yet the number of individual plaintiffs in Utah is only about 100. Is it the nature of the class, the medications themselves, a lack of awareness of the litigation, etc? After all, we are supposed to be a litigious nation and mental health providers frequently claim that mental health consumers are now empowered or so they say.

Posted by: Joe at June 13, 2007 11:42 AM

"While we continue to believe we would have prevailed had we gone to trial, resolving these claims will help Lilly return its focus to addressing unmet medical needs for patients and physicians," said Michael J. Harrington, Lilly's deputy general counsel, in a statement."

I'll tell you what prevails here:

The truth.

Posted by: Stephany at June 13, 2007 03:57 PM

re:Is it the nature of the class, the medications themselves, a lack of awareness of the litigation, etc?
In my experience, yes to all of the above.

Posted by: Mark(p.s.2) at June 13, 2007 08:44 PM