The Last Thing The Voices Inside My Head Told Me Was That I Was Getting Fat

It's been awhile since I've done a "Big Pharma Sucks Pud" post, but that has nothing to do with Big Pharma sucking less pud. A Drugmonkey's got things to do you know, and keeping track of Big Pharma pud sucking can be a bit of a time trap. Tonight we'll get back into the pudsuck swing of things though thanks to Eli Lilly, a company that says on the first page of it's website that:

We are committed to providing answers that matter - through medicines and information - for some of the world's most urgent medical needs.

Sweet. So let's say there's a question like, "Does Eli Lilly's anti-psychotic medicine, Zyprexa, cause people to develop diabetes and lead to weight gain?" Lilly has said over and over again that there is no link, and did so again on Friday. There you go, an answer that matters.

You'll notice, however, that there wasn't anything in that Lilly commitment that said the answers would be truthful. From today's New York Times:

The drug maker Eli Lilly has engaged in a decade-long effort to play down 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.

Lilly’s own published data, which it told its sales representatives to play down in conversations with doctors, has shown that 30 percent of patients taking Zyprexa gain 22 pounds or more after a year on the drug, and some patients have reported gaining 100 pounds or more. 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 the period 1995 to 2004.

Some of you are probably saying, "Well yeah, but Zyprexa beats the crap out of those older antipsychotics" That's the answer Lilly would give. Here's the answer that matters though, from the same story:

The drugs are known as atypical antipsychotics and include Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal and AstraZeneca’s Seroquel. When they were introduced in the mid-1990s, psychiatrists hoped they would relieve mental illness without the tremors and facial twitches associated with older drugs. But the new drugs have not proven significantly better and have their own side effects, said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, the lead investigator on a federally sponsored clinical trial that compared Zyprexa and other new drugs with one older one.

Others of you are probably thinking "Schizophrenia is serious stuff Drugmonkey, and if someone packs on a few pounds it's worth it to stop their delusions that the CIA is putting pictures of their granddaughter on balloons and selling them at the county fair in cooperation with Queen Elizabeth"

Try again:

Lilly did expand its marketing to primary care physicians, who its internal studies showed were less aware of Zyprexa’s side effects. Lilly sales material encouraged representatives to promote Zyprexa as a “safe, gentle psychotropic” suitable for people with mild mental illness.

"Well," yet more of you might be thinking to yourself. "It's not like Lilly doesn't have you covered if your blood sugar does end up going through the ceiling." In this case you would be right. From a press release detailing Lilly's 3rd quarter 2006 sales results:

Diabetes care revenue, composed primarily of Humalog(R), Humulin(R),Actos(R) and Byetta, increased 9 percent, to $712.4 million, compared with the third quarter of 2005. Diabetes care revenue increased 14 percent in the U.S., to $408.6 million, while diabetes care revenue outside the U.S. increased 3 percent, to $303.8 million.

According to the press release, diabetes care products represent the second largest source of revenue for the company, behind only........Zyprexa.

Got that? Lilly's blockbuster drug just happens to cause a side effect that Lilly's other drugs will treat. Funny how that works out. I suppose next we'll be reading about how Lilly is mounting a hostile takeover of the Hershey company so they can start giving out free decadent dark chocolate samples with every bottle of Humalog insulin sold.

Oh.... and the only reason we know about the Lilly Lies™ program is because of greedy trial lawyers. Seems like folks who weren't happy about being turned into diabetic lardasses hired a few who managed to pry the truth out of Lilly's clenched fist with a subpoena or two. The lawyers are also the only reason we know about people dropping dead from Vioxx. You may want to think about that before you unquestionably accept the next round of "lawsuit madness" propaganda that will surely be shoved down your throat. Without the greedy legal bastards, the greedy corporate bastards win unopposed. We need both sets of bastards watching each other if we want the answers that matter.