In Alaska, Zyprexa Goes On Trial Twice
4 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // March 25th, 2008 // 9:05 am
Zyprexa figured in two different courtrooms just one floor apart in an Anchorage court the other day. Upstairs, Lilly was battling charges by the state of Alaska that the drugmaker failed to warn patients of the antipsychotics’s side effects while making deceptive claims, which cost the state Medicaid program at least $40 million.
Downstairs, a fidgety, 55-year-old man with long, greasy hair named William Bigley appeared before a judge who, The New York Times writes, would decide whether Bigley should be held for 30 days in a psychiatric hospital. For his part, he told the judge his meds were “poison” and that he didn’t need them. “I’m fine,” he said, according to the paper. Well, he also claimed that he knows President Bush, owns a private jet and has seen flying saucers.
The reason for this tale? Bigley’s hearing illustrates the difficult choices faced by mentally ill patients as they consider taking Zyprexa or other antipsychotics, the Times writes. Of course, drugs such as Zyprexa allow many patients to live outside psychiatric institutions. But as the paper reports, documents discussed upstairs offered evidence that Bigley, despite any delusions, has reason to dislike the meds.
All antipsychotics have side effects, and Zyprexa’s are among the worst, according to the American Diabetes Association and independent scientists. In many patients, Zyprexa causes severe weight gain that can lead to diabetes, as well as sharply higher cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. But the documents introduced in the Zyprexa trial show that for much of the last decade, Lilly played down the risks. Among themselves, in internal e-mail messages and memorandums, they shared worries that Zyprexa’s sales would fall if the drug was linked to weight gain or diabetes.
Read here to learn whether Bigley should take Zyprexa….
Grieving
Good for Mr. Bigley. He is still alive, having refused Zyprexa and all the other atypicals that didn’t help him. Mr. Berenson refers to the American Diabetes Association w hich rates Zyprexa the worst. So did the big NIH CATIE study.
There are non-lethal remedies that can help calm or even sedate people whose behavior is difficult due to their condition. This goes for dementia as well, where we are practicing euthanasia with Zyprexa and other atypicals off label. Why are not other, even non-prescription remedies being used? Oh, I forgot, they don’t bring in enough money.
Thank you Alaska for giving Mr. Bigley a considered choice, and please work on alternative medication. It truly can work, and can save people’s lives so that they will not die from these drugs; Zyprexa most of all.
Nathan
What is it about this web site that seems to attract all these vocal pharma naysayers?
Grieving says:
“Thank you Alaska for giving Mr. Bigley a considered choice, and please work on alternative medication.”
Are you asking the state of Alaska to work on alternative medications? Mmm… Good luck with that.
We in the pharma industry ARE working on alternative medications with fewer side effects. We know full-well that most antipsychotics have life-altering side effects. However, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are also life-altering diseases, as was clearly illustrated in the NYTimes article about Mr. Bigley.
Lisa Van S
Gee,..I wonder if Mr. Bigley, shares the belief of his friend, the President, that there was WMD in Iraq. The reasoning for war.
Justice in Michigan
Well, it is certainly convenient for Lilly that a real, live florid psychotic person should show up.
But it’s beside the point re: the key Zyprexa issues, which have to do with charges of a promotional scheme very far beyond those indications, as well as suppression of known risks.