Oh, and I forgot to mention…
Yesterday I was talking about Eli Lilly’s sponsorship of a study using Zyprexa (which is their drug) in people who don’t yet have schizophrenia, but are “at risk.” In my snarky condemnation, I forgot to mention the $690 million they were forced to pay last year to settle thousands of lawsuits brought by folks who got diabetes and other diseases after taking Zyprexa.
Drug companies could save themselves loads of money if they were simply honest with the public, though I guess they don’t see it that way. I used to do speaking engagements for AstraZeneca (unpaid) because I believed so strongly in the restorative power of the pill and I wanted to spread the gospel. I used to speak so movingly, I’d tear up. “My story is really quite poignant,” I’d think. “Sniff, sniff.”
Then I found out there were class-action suits, like the one regarding Zyprexa, pending against AZ. Apparently, the diabetes risk with Seroquel was deemed sufficiently grave that the company placed extensive warning labels on the medication in Japan. But they concealed that information in the U.S. Bastards.
I called my contact at AZ—my naive big-pharma cherry now popped—and told him I’d no longer work with a company so lacking in integrity. I’m sure he wondered what took me so long.
liz | 9:46 AM | Uncategorized
Consumers sometimes speak of the “Prophecy of Doom” , i.e. “Too sick for too long to get any better.” It is often “bestowed” upon consumers based on their therapeutic vitae. I fear that children who were prescribed Zyprexa for non-emergent or non-existent schizophrenia are likely to hear the Prophecy in young adulthood. I can foresee a time when a twenty year old receives the Prophecy – “Let’s see. You took Zyprexa when you were ten and you are now twenty. You have been too sick for too long to get any better.”
From the NYT article: (see the reference to stigma. Let’s hope this includes the self-stigmatization that might accrue to children who are needlessly medicated.) “Unfortunately, the study’s numbers are so small that it cannot be decisive on the key issue, which is whether it’s prudent to treat people early when there are uncertainties about the diagnosis and given the effect of stigma and adverse effects,” said Dr. William Carpenter, director of the Psychiatric Research Center at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in the study.”
Of course, consumers already suffer disproportionally from diabetes and obesity plays a significant role in its onset. Again, from the NYT article: “Those on medication gained an average of 20 pounds during the study. Weight gain is a common side effect of Zyprexa.”
And Eli Lilly is well aware of the connection between Zyprexa and diabetes which Liz had mentioned, “Lilly Faces New Lawsuits Claiming Excess Marketing of Zyprexa”:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aIky2Wnyem_o&refer=us
Scientific studies, pseudo-scientific studies, and now pharmaceutical funded studies intended to “grow the market” at the expense of children.
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