Friday, March 14, 2008

Lilly E-Mail Discussed Off-Label Drug Use

John C. Lechleiter, an Eli Lilly official who is about to become the company’s top executive, wrote e-mail in 2003 that appears to have encouraged Lilly to promote its schizophrenia medicine Zyprexa for a use not approved by federal drug regulators.

Dr. Lechleiter’s comments came in a March 2003 e-mail message he wrote to other Lilly executives, after he traveled to Cincinnati to watch Lilly sales representatives talk to doctors.

The e-mail message was discussed earlier this week in an Anchorage courtroom in a lawsuit against Lilly by the state of Alaska. The suit seeks reimbursement for the medical costs of Medicaid patients who developed diabetes while taking Zyprexa. The drug causes severe weight gain and cholesterol problems in many patients and has been linked to diabetes.

Zyprexa is federally approved only for use by adults diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. While doctors are free to prescribe it “off label” for any patients for any use, it would be a violation of federal law for Lilly to actively encourage off-label use of the drug. In his e-mail message, Dr. Lechleiter discusses the use of Zyprexa by children and teenagers.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES