Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company, is in a tight spot, defending its position against the law suits from mentally ill patients, about the company’s best-selling schizophrenia drug, Zyprexa. The company is being blamed for undermining the health risks of the drug, which is being linked to obesity and high blood sugar.
On the basis of many supporting documents and internal communication between managers in the company, ample evidence has surfaced, that the company has indeed kept under wraps, the harmful side-effects of the drug Zyprexa.Even the company’s published statistics which the sales representatives have been tutored to make light of, portrays statistics that about 30% of the patients consuming Zyprexa, have gained 22 pounds within a year of consuming the drug and some have gained as much as 100 pounds. The documents clearly portray the abiding worry of the company that its sales might plummet if they were honest about the drug’s effect on weight gain or blood sugar levels.
The company has not taken the allegation lightly and has completely denied it. Lilly explained that the FDA has been enabled with a clear picture of all the clinical trials and reviews regarding the usage of the drug world-wide. But documents in circulation within the company relates to an entirely different story. Apprehension regarding the drug’s side effects has been debated as early as 1999, to the extent that company bigwigs felt it could jeopardize the sales of their most popular product, if it were publicized.
Source-Medindia
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