Monday, January 22, 2007

Lilly - Zyprexa: more states join the Viva Zyprexa chase

Back stories here.

Stepping up government investigations into Eli Lilly's marketing of its best-selling schizophrenia drug Zyprexa, state prosecutors in Illinois and Vermont have demanded that the company turn over information about the way it promoted the medication.

Last week lawyers from the consumer protection division of the Illinois attorney general’s office demanded that Lilly hand over marketing materials, e-mail messages, and other documents with information about promotion of Zyprexa. Vermont's lawyers also joined the chase.

While the investigation being led by Illinois is civil, other investigations into Lilly’s conduct are both civil and criminal. Attorneys general in California and Florida may seek to recover Medicaid payments that the states made for Zyprexa. Medicaid represents a sizable percentage of the drug’s overall sales because many people who take the medicine are disabled and do not work.

More from Alex Berenson at the NYT

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