"...Every day and with every interaction we strive to operate in a responsible and compliant manner. Doing the right thing is non-negotiable at Lilly, and I remain personally committed to all of us at Lilly maintaining the highest standards of conduct.'"

I don't know why I have trouble believing it.
I'm sorry Phil Johnson.
I'll try a little bit harder!

Phil, You are not being too tough on Lilly. Lilly was tough on the very consumers who were injured when it promoted off-label use and/or failed to promptly disclose side effects as it became aware of them. Doing the right thing was clearly negotiable at Lilly.

Many consumers invested their hope, their trust, and their well-being in Zyprexa. After all, we were told ad nauseum that the SGAs were safer and more effective then FGAs. Where do we now look to recover that hope, that trust and and that well-being?

Lilly may well consider the interests of consumers injured by Zyprexa to be little more than an economic afterthought of minor proportions. As you note, Lilly never apologized for lying about the safety of Zyprexa. Such an apology would require that it show remorse and admit culpability for failing to ".... take seriously our responsibilities to the patients we serve ...."

No, you're not being too tough! First of all, Lilly will continue to profit from its past off-label marketing of Zpyrexa. It may no longer push the drug for vague "agitation" in the elderly or "disruptive behavior" in children. But thanks to its prior campaigns, it already has too many prescribers well-trained.

If this were a real apology, it would come with a Dear Doctor letter published in all the major journals, stating that these are not approved uses of the drug and should be discontinued.

Second, where schizophrenia and bipolar mania are concerned, evidently Lilly wants to profit from the attitude on display in that Rolling Stone article: Who cares? Whether because these diseases are so terrible, or because the patients are so incapable of rational thought, apparently almost any side effect can be rationalized: the medical heroes treating these diseases have "bigger things to worry about."

(It always puzzles me when mega-doses of toxic drugs to treat a severe ailment are referred to as "heroic" measures. The patients might in some situations be called heroic -- if only they had real informed consent. But they don't. If the prescribers were suffering the toxic effects themselves, maybe they would be heroes. But you can't be "heroic" by sending other people on a march through hell, for whatever cause.)

Thanks for checking Lilly's sensitivity level on maimed and dead people made that way by Zyprexa. It has certainly never been on display before and from what I read, what they said to you was not even half an apology. It was a non-apology. In short, killing and maiming have no place on their spread sheets.

Or any other spread sheets. Or on very few psychiatrists' spread sheets (protected from suit under the mass tort). Or on AG's spread sheets. Until the laws change and send these guys to prison, or require AGs to recognize victims and show them justice, until the MSM stops writing articles that don't mention a human being, no justice will be done - either to victims, or their families. Oh, wait. I forgot the rest of the federal government. Something has to change there , too. I'm still waiting for a reply from my own Senator Barbara Mikulski, from an email I sent to her site in 2003. Incidentally, she is on the HELP Committee.

This is a prime example of how America's healthcare has taken a nose dive, it's all about money.

We're just byproducts of a brilliant marketing scheme. Lilly got what they wanted, and human life was never part of the equation.

If you cannot afford insurance you are screwed, if you don't have cash to see a doctor you are screwed, it's not about healthcare or human beings, it's all about profit, and that's a damn fucking shame.

I don't care if they sent an apology letter, that would actually be a smack in the face!

Stephany,
Some days I think if you *have* health insurance and can see a doctor you're screwed. I consider my doctor an impediment I must negotiate to take care of myself. I have to go suck up to these people every six to eight months in order to get a piece of paper that allows me to FINALLY get the medication I've known I needed for years.

For no reason I can see I'm forced to check in, listen to their bull pucky and fend off their further harmful suggestions. I like my doctor as a person but I have little regard for his competence. He's the best of a bad lot.
Sherry (feeling a bit snarky this evening)

Forget the apologies.
Raise the bar next time....

From a misdemeanor....to numerous felonies...
From monetary damages....to jail time.

Am I being too tough here?

Duane

Sherry, I agree, some days I feel I live inside a nightmare.

the only real apology i've heard from anyone recently is that from that swimmer guy who was caught on camera smoking from a bong. and he only issued his apology after trying to bribe his way out of it. but in his apology, he basically said "yes i did, and i'm sorry i did". you will NEVER ever get an apology like that from corporate anyone. their carefully worded "apologies" are designed to give the impression of regret, without actually admitting to anything. that's corporate america, pharma or otherwise.