Former Zyprexa Rep Reveals Why He Blew The Whistle On Lilly

One of the interesting stories to come out of last week's record $1.42 billion settlement (and subsequent guilty plea to one criminal charge) between Lilly and the feds and about 30 states over claims Zyprexa was illegally marketed comes from Robert Rudolph, a Lilly sales rep who was one of several reps to blow the whistle on his own company.

"Why, he asked management, was the Indianapolis pharmaceutical company marketing its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa to elderly people when the drug was not approved for that group?

"Why had the company violated privacy rules by culling patient lists at doctors' offices?

"Why was the company counting drug samples as sales, which would boost the stock price?

"He went on for about 10 minutes during a sales meeting in 2002. The other 25 Lilly sales representatives stared at him, stunned.

"'I'd just been wrestling with this stuff for so long,' he said in a telephone interview today. 'I was put in a position of breaking the law, in my view, or quitting....'

"He warned management of his concerns. Their response: 'You're not a team player.'

"He began talking to other sales representatives about the issue, including Hector Rosado, another whistle-blower in the case.

"As he pondered what to do, Rudolph's son, then 15, provided a moment of clarity:

"'He came up to me and said, "Dad, what's wrong is wrong." I had taught my kids that. It was wrong, and I wanted to make it right.'"

Good for Rudolph and his son. Rudolph and eight other Lilly whistleblowers will split from $78 million to $100 million of the settlement.