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Eli Lilly: Drug Ads Influencing Patients

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 03:00 CDT

By TOM MURPHY

INDIANAPOLIS - Eli Lilly and Co., which has faced thousands of lawsuits over its anti-psychotic Zyprexa, says lawyers' ads about the drug are prompting some patients to stop taking mental illness medications when they shouldn't.

The advertising blitz "presents yet another barrier for patients who suffer from severe mental illness" and increases the risks that people will not get the care they need, said Carole Puls, a spokeswoman for the Indianapolis-based drug maker.

Lilly on Wednesday released the results of a company-funded survey that asked 402 psychiatrists who treat patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia to complete an online questionnaire. More than half of the participating psychiatrists said they believed their patients who stopped medication or reduced the dosage did so after seeing lawyers' advertisements about anti-psychotic drugs.

Lilly has faced thousands of lawsuits over Zyprexa, which treats schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and generated $4.4 billion in sales last year. Most claims center on allegations that Zyprexa causes diabetes or high blood sugar and that labels on the drug failed to adequately warn users of the risks.

The drug maker has spent about $1.2 billion to settle roughly 28,000 Zyprexa claims since 2005. Lilly said Tuesday it had settled an additional 900 claims but did not disclose a settlement amount.

The company still faces product liability lawsuits from roughly 750 patients.

Some of the lawyers' ads highlight the drug's side effects, while others note the amount Lilly has spent to settle lawsuits.

The commercials have an "ambulance-chasing feel to them," said Linda Rosenberg, president and chief executive of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, which represents 1,300 behavioral healthcare organizations and helped design the survey.

"All we're concerned about is getting patients talking to their doctors and not getting immediately frightened by an ad," she said.

Reports about the dangerous side effects of certain drugs often don't address what happens when people stop taking them, said Dr. Nada Stotland, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. She was not involved in the Lilly study.

Stotland said suicides rose and the number of people taking a group of common antidepressants fell a few years ago after the media reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated severe "black box" warnings for the drugs.

"You can't prove a cause-and-effect, but you can draw a pretty good hypothesis that there's a relationship between suicides going up and people not being treated for depression," she said.

Attorney William Berg said his firm includes a disclaimer with each Zyprexa ad.

"In all of our ads, we tell folks, 'Do not stop taking any medication without consulting your doctor,'" he said.

Berg Injury Lawyers, based in Alameda, Calif., has represented more than 100 patients in lawsuits against Lilly. Berg said he runs the ads to let people know about their right to compensation if they experienced side effects that were not properly disclosed.

"If we advertising lawyers don't tell people about their legal rights, who will? Eli Lilly sure isn't going to," he said.

Allen Rothenberg, a Philadelphia attorney whose firm also represents Zyprexa patients, said Lilly withheld information from patients and doctors about the drug.

"What we do is we even the playing field for the individuals, for the people," he said.

Puls said Lilly has made doctors aware of Zyprexa's side effects since the drug debuted in 1996.

"Doctors have been kept fully aware of risks associated with Zyprexa, and we think they're the best ones to determine appropriate treatment, not plaintiffs' attorneys," she said.

Lilly shares fell 53 cents to $56.78 Tuesday.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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