The Future of Zyprexa
Over the last few years, dozens of new lawsuits have been filed by patients who say they took Zyprexa without knowing the risks. This, of course, was well after Eli Lilly promoted the drug to physicians, as a treatment for conditions other than mental illness (which is what Zyprexa was initially approved by the FDA to treat in the first place). In June of 2005, Eli Lilly announced plans to settle some 8,000 claims. These lawsuits were brought by patients who alleged they developed diabetes, as a result of their use of Zyprexa.
Ironically, the company quickly settled the cases for 690 million dollars. This was after only five plaintiffs had provided depositions; and before any substantive depositions had even been taken from the Lilly defendants. However, even lawsuits don't appear to be deterring Eli Lilly from promoting
Zyprexa. According to Lilly's SEC filing last year, sales of
Zyprexa in the second quarter of 2006 totaled 1.12 billion dollars.
This represented a 2% increase over the second quarter of 2005. Even so, the latest sales report regarding
Zyprexa released by the company wasn't so up-beat. On July 4
th, 2007,
chief executive officer of Eli Lilly, Sidney Taurel said Wednesday (because of lingering safety concerns) sales ! of its blockbuster psychiatric drug Zyprexa will largely be flat in 2007; when compared with 2006 sales.
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