Eli Lilly Faces Thousands of New Zyprexa Lawsuits

- April 24, 2006

The makers of the controversial schizophrenia drug Zyprexa face as many as five thousand new lawsuits claiming the company promoted the drug for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Eli Lilly & Co. settled Zyprexa litigation last year for $700 million. The new round of lawsuits filed this year could cost the company more than the 2005 settlement, said Carl Tobias, a products-liability law professor at the University of Richmond Law School in Virginia.

"More and more people who have been injured or think they've been injured come forward," Tobias said. "It takes on a life of its own."

The newest complaints in the product liability lawsuits allege Lilly overly marketed and promoted Zyprexa for the treatment of uses other than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. "Doctors are prescribing it for women with post-partum depression; they're prescribing it for children who are acting out," said Tommy Fibich, a Houston attorney representing 300 patients.

Robert Rabin, a Stanford University law professor who specializes in product-defect law said that lawsuits involving children could be more costly for Lilly. "Kids are a particularly vulnerable group of plaintiffs," Rabin said. If the claims involving children can be proven, the damages would be higher because they would need to be pain over a longer period of time."

Many of the lawsuits claim Lilly was aware of the risks associated with Zyprexa, but didn't warn the public early enough. According to a complaint filed in Indiana in February on behalf of 22 Zyprexa users, "As early as 1998, the medical literature conclusively revealed data that linked Zyprexa with causing diabetes."

Lilly also faces Zyprexa litigation in New York, on behalf of private health insurers who accuse the drug company of failing to adhere to racketeering laws by bankrolling nonprofit organizations and paying physicians, sales representatives, and medical marketing companies to help endorse Zyprexa as a treatment for various unapproved illnesses and downplay the harmful side effects.

Lilly spokeswoman Tarra Ryker announced in an interview on April 12 that the 130-year-old company will "vigorously defend" the remaining Zyprexa cases.

For more information on Zyprexa lawsuits, please contact us to confer with a Zyprexa attorney.

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