Lilly Drug Company Sold Dementia Drug Knowing It Did Not Work
Eily Lilly & Company, a major drug company, continued to encourage doctors to prescribe Zyprexa to elderly dementia patients, an unapproved use for the drug, even though the company had evidence that the drug did not work for that group of patients.
According to internal company documents, Lilly sent study results to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1995 that showed Zyprexa did not help dementia symptoms in older patients. Nevertheless, Lilly began marketing the drug targeting the same group of people in 1999. At this time, the only approved use of Zyprexa was for patients suffering from schizophrenia. These documents also revealed that Lilly wrote medical journal studies about Zyprexa and asked doctors to put their names on the articles. In a February 15, 2002 email from Lilly researcher Peter Feldman to global marketing director, Denice Torres, Feldman said company officials were saying in internal memos that they were going to stop studying Zyprexa's potential health benefits for elderly consumers. "That would risk killing the goose that lays the golden eggs to save on poultry feed costs", he said. Torres assured him that older consumers would continue to be a prime target for Zyprexa.
In 2003, Lilly told the FDA that data from seven studies showed Zyprexa did not alleviate symptoms of Alzheimer's or other dementia. In fact, studies found death rates in older dementia patients taking Zyprexa "were significantly greater" than those who did not take the medication.
In 2005, Lilly was required to warn of the increased risk to elderly dementia patients using Zyprexa.
In 2008, Zyprexa was the best selling drug for Lilly with $4.7 billion in sales. Lilly pled guilty in January 2009 to a federal misdemeanor charge of illegally marketing Zyprexa for off-label uses to elderly consumers.
