Lilly May Face More Zyprexa Lawsuits After FDA Letter (Update2)

Eli Lilly & Co. may attract more lawsuits alleging it failed to warn users that a psychiatric drug was linked to diabetes after the pharmaceutical company received a letter from U.S. regulators.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told Lilly in March it would delay the approval of Symbyax for hard-to-treat depression because the agency wanted more information about the risk of diabetes in the medicine's prescribing label. Symbyax combines Lilly's antipsychotic pill Zyprexa and the antidepressant Prozac.

The FDA's request, in a letter to Lilly obtained by Bloomberg, may bolster plaintiffs' suits against the Indianapolis company over side effects tied to Zyprexa, lawyers said. Lilly has paid more than $1.2 billion to settle 29,000 claims that patients weren't adequately warned that Zyprexa can cause diabetes, weight gain and pancreas infections.

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