More States Action Likely On Zyprexa, Other Antipsychotics

I spoke yesterday with representatives from the Illinois and Oregon AG's offices, trying to clarify a few matters about yesterday's $62 million settlement with Lilly over off-label marketing of Zyprexa. The settlement covers 32 states plus the District of Columbia. You can read the settlement agreement for the State of Oregon here.

The settlement does not cover any claims by the states that might arise from injuries caused by Zyprexa--diabetes being the prime example--and allegations that Lilly lied about side effects caused by the drug and advised its sales force to play down, said Jan Margosian, a spokeswoman for the Oregon AG's office. She declined to confirm whether Oregon or other states are investigating the injuries caused by Zyprexa, as it's a amtter of policy not to comment on on-going investigations.

Margosian said, "They (Lilly) lied to health professionals about the use" of Zyprexa, marketing it directly to doctors for unapproved uses such as dementia and children. She said that while most Zyprexa use in Oregon was general adult use, the state did encounter cases of pediatric use.

I asked her if Oregon were looking into AstraZeneca and J&J/Janssen over similar issues with Seroquel and Risperdal. "There are many more (claims) to come down the road," she said. "We're monitoring all of the companies. If they were operating the way Lilly was, we'll probably be talking to them."

AZ and J&J have already been sued by other states such as Montana and Arkansas over how they allegedly marketed their drugs and how forthcoming they were about problems with the drugs.

She said the collective of 32 states AGs and DC's AG were continuing to talk about these matters.

To date, Lilly has already settled over $1.3 billion in claims arising from its handling of Zyprexa, a drug that generates over $4 billion a year in sales.