Furious Seasons

March 14, 2008

The Zyprexa Chronicles: Incoming Lilly CEO Allegedly Pushed For Off-Label Marketing Of Zyprexa For Kids In 2003

Alex Berenson at the New York Times has a piece that just hit the paper's website detailing an email that was presented in the Alaska v. Lilly Zyprexa trial earlier this week. In the email, according to the Times, John Lechleiter, a then Lilly VP who's soon to become the company's CEO, did the following:

"In the message, Dr. Lechleiter, who was then the company’s executive vice president for pharmaceutical products, noted to other Lilly officials that company representatives were already promoting Strattera, a second Lilly psychiatric drug, to pediatricians and child psychiatrists. The representatives could also discuss Zyprexa with such doctors, he said.
"'The fact we are now talking to child psychs and peds and others about Strattera means that we must seize the opportunity to expand our work with Zyprexa in this same child-adolescent population,' Dr. Lechleiter wrote in the message. He also encouraged Lilly to get data on the use of Zyprexa in treating 'disruptive kids' in order to increase the drug’s sales."

The drug is not approved for use in children. It's not approved for use among "disruptive" adults even. To think that a high company official would press for Zyprexa's use in children with ADHD (meaning mostly boys) is simply disgusting, given what the company knew about this drug in 2003.

Lilly responded to the paper:

"A spokesman for Eli Lilly said Dr. Lechleiter, an organic chemist, was not advocating off-label promotion in his note but simply wanted the company to respond to physicians’ requests for information. The company declined to make Dr. Lechleiter available for comment."

Interestingly, the trial jury did not get to hear about the email since the off-label marketing portion of Alaska's lawsuit was thrown out recently. But there it was being discussed in open court (with the jury excused) and Berenson seized upon it. I'm sure the Drug Wonks crowd will deem that a reportorial breach somehow.

Lechleiter is scheduled to become Lilly's new CEO on April 1.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at March 14, 2008 11:58 AM

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Comments

Oh my GOD!

Strattera was being pushed to parents to use from CABF bp kids dot org site at that time, and some kids were in a study.

Childhood Bipolar dx at age 11, in 1999, still on 15mg a day of Zyprexa in 2003.

LISTEN UP LILLY YOU ARE TOAST.

Posted by: Stephany at March 14, 2008 02:55 PM

I found this article to be extremely disturbing. When I was at my most manic five years ago, just after diagnosis, doctors put me olanzipine/Zyprexa, and it was awful. The worst drug I ever took. I couldn't think, I was tired all the time, and overall I just felt terrible.

The thought of putting a little kid on this nasty drug makes me sick. Talk about turning some poor kid into a space cadet, and giving them almost no chance to reach their full potential.

Ryan

Posted by: Ryan Christman at March 14, 2008 02:59 PM

Consumers Union is trying to obtain 50,000 signatures by the end of this month. With obtaining enough signatures it hopes to force drug companies to provide a 1-800 number to report adverse side effects of their medications to the FDA in their drug ads.

The link to sign the petition in below.

https://secure.consumersunion.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=Rx_Drug_Ads_Petition&JServSessionIdr005=bpc74k92e1.app46a

Posted by: Jane at March 14, 2008 03:26 PM

Eli "MKULTRA" Lilly. What a bunch of weasely lowlifes - I fucking knew the culture hadn't changed. Nothing's too shady for these people.

Question for you: who'd be Lechleiter's kid?

Matt

Posted by: Matthew Holford at March 15, 2008 04:18 AM

I would love to think this disclosure would be a permanent black mark on Lechleiter and even disrupt his path to the top office but unfortunately I don't think it will happen. The spin that Lilly puts on everything reminds me of those political debates where no matter what the question is the responder puts out his own little platitude. It's getting a little better but I'm still dumbfounded at how slow the public is to wake up to the implications of these stories to overall public health and the cost of health care.

Posted by: Sara at March 15, 2008 09:11 AM

P.S. Kudos to Berenson for jumping on this!

Posted by: Sara at March 15, 2008 09:12 AM