Drug maker Eli Lilly has engaged in a decadelong effort to downplay the health risks of Zyprexa, its best-selling medication for schizophrenia, according to hundreds of internal Lilly documents and e-mail messages among top company managers.
But Lilly was concerned that Zyprexa's sales would be hurt if the company was more forthright about the fact that the drug might cause unmanageable weight gain or diabetes, according to the documents, which cover 1995 to 2004.
In 2000, a group of diabetes doctors that Lilly had retained to consider potential links between Zyprexa and diabetes warned the company that "unless we come clean on this, it could get much more serious than we might anticipate," according to an e-mail message from one Lilly manager to another.
And in that year and 2001, the documents show, Lilly's own marketing research found that psychiatrists were consistently saying that many more of their patients developed high blood sugar or diabetes while taking Zyprexa than other antipsychotic drugs.
"Animal insulin is the Lindbergh of the space shuttle age," said Dr. John H. Holcombe, senior clinical research physician for diabetes care at Lilly. "It's antiquated."
Here's the "Diabetes Expert" who did not have enough "intestinal fortitude" to appear on camera-1999
Dr. Loren Grossman, Eli Lilly and Company, Canada
Dr. Loren Grossman: In many but not all cases, people who switched from animal insulin to human insulin, when they were under very careful supervision, were able to make that switch and make those adjustments. But as I said, there are some people, for reasons I can't explain, because I don't know individual cases, who have not been able to do so. Maybe there are differences in their antibody responses. Maybe there are unpredictable, different antibodies we don't know about. Most people have been able to make the switch by adjusting the dosage. Some have not been able to.
Dr. Loren Grossman: I don't know. It's a small number. I don't know that. But we are continuing to produce pork insulin. This announcement of discontinuing only one formulation does not prevent people from continuing on the animal insulin they need. The Eli Lilly and Company Red Book of Conduct We always strive to do the right thing.
We will become best at winning the right way.
Actions speak louder than words, and the profit-driven screams are heard by far more than those using natural insulins.
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