big pharma | lilly to pay up
Drug giant Eli Lilly has agreed to pay out close to $700 million dollars to people who suffered damages from taking the prescription drug Zyprexa (olanzapine).
The Indianapolis Star reports that 8, 362 consumers of Lilly's top-selling drug that produces diabetes--among other life-threatening effects--can expect Between $5,000 to "well over $100,000 a person" depending upon the harm suffered.
Judge Jack Weinstein who presided over this massive case, capped legal fees to attorneys at 35%--which is more than $200 million. The settlement covered about 75 percent of the known Zyprexa claims
against Lilly. But hundreds more have flooded into federal and state courts.
Lilly has set aside another $300 million to cover potential liability from the unsettled cases, which it has said it will fight in court.
The first trial from the unsettled claims could happen next year. Lilly employees are being deposed by trial lawyers, and the company has turned over more than 10 million pages of documents sought by plaintiffs'
attorneys, Woodin said.
Eli Lilly 's $700 million settlement confirms that Zyprexa, its best selling drug, induces diabetes--an irreversible debilitating disease.
These findings raise a number of troubling questions, which must, nevertheless be asked.
Why is a drug that produces a life-shortening disease allowed to be advertised and widely marketed?
Why is its use not restricted for proven benefit in life-threatening conditions?
Is U.S. heathcare policy to promote increased sales for Eli Lilly's
diabetes treatment products?
Eli Lilly corporation also has some
troubling connections to
both the H W G Bush, Dubya Bush as well as the Reagan Administrations and has, in prior lawsuits exhibited a "
...history of reckless disregard." In a lawsuit pursued in the 1980s "
...victims’ attorneys wanted the jury to hear about Lilly’s anti- inflamatory drug Oraflex, introduced in 1982 but taken off the market three months later. A U.S. Justice Department investigation linked Oraflex to the deaths of more than 100 patients and concluded that Lilly had misled the FDA. Lilly was charged with 25 counts related to mislabeling side effects and pled guilty—but in 1985, the Reagan-Bush Justice Department saw fit to fine them a mere $25,000".
Read that whole story at Z-Mag.
Individuals who believe they were damaged by the effects of taking this widely promoted antipsychotic drug can find out more from
Alexander, Hawes & Audet, LLP, one of the firms who filed the case.
To find out more about unethical human research conducted on unsuspecting citizens by other big pharma drug pushers, check out the website of the
Alliance for Human Research Protection, a national network of lay people and professionals dedicated to advancing responsible and ethical medical research practices, to ensure that the human rights, dignity and welfare of human subjects are protected, and to minimize the risks associated with such endeavors.
THANKS TO: Tom Beherendt, one of the Board members of NARPA [the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy] a human rights organization comprised of "...people who've survived psychiatric intervention, advocates, civil rights activists, mental health workers, and lawyers. NARPA exists to expose abuse, to shed light on coercive and dangerous practices, and to promote real alternatives to a mental health system that even professionals find disgraceful." | Labels: big pharma, lawsuits, zyprexa