Indianapolis Star
By John Russell
Eli Lilly and Co. has hit a roadblock in its efforts to extend the life of its top-selling product, the schizophrenia drug Zyprexa, which loses its patent protection against generic rivals in three years.
The Food and Drug Administration rejected Lilly’s application to sell a once-a-month injectable version of Zyprexa, the Indianapolis drug [...]
Entries from February 2008
February 29, 2008
FDA rejects injectable Zyprexa – Regulators seek more data after some side effects seen in testing
February 29, 2008
Lilly Prepares for Zyprexa Case
Associated Press
NEW YORK (Associated Press) – Eli Lilly and Co. finally heads to court next week to fight the long-standing accusation that it failed to warn doctors and patients about complications tied to its top-selling drug Zyprexa.
Lilly will face the state of Alaska in a trial in Anchorage that centers on Medicaid patients who use [...]
February 28, 2008
Lilly Faces Initial Zyprexa Trial – Alaska’s Civil Suit Might Set Pattern for Other Actions
Wall Street Journal
By AVERY JOHNSON
Eli Lilly & Co. is set to square off next week in the first trial over its schizophrenia drug Zyprexa, defending a civil suit by the state of Alaska that will be closely watched by state and federal prosecutors investigating the drug company.
The trial’s outcome — or even evidence introduced along [...]
February 27, 2008
Cheyenne was heavily medicated-Psychiatrist testifies he prescribed three drugs at first session
Southern Standard (Tennessee)
By James Clark
Regardless of what killed Cheyenne Delp on June 26, 2004, she was a child under the influence of heavy medication the day she died.
The medicine Cheyenne was prescribed was so powerful, she had to undergo an EKG to determine if her heart was healthy enough for her to take Imipramine, a [...]
February 25, 2008
NJ Legislator: Probe Antipsychotics, Kids & Medicaid
Pharmalot
By Ed Silverman
New Jersey’s Medicaid program spent more than $73 million on antipsychotic medications for children less than 18 years old between 2000 and 2007, according to state records, even though the drugs weren’t approved by the FDA for treating kids. And a state official acknowledges the drugs may have been prescribed for conditions other [...]
February 22, 2008
State AG sues two drug companies
Helena Independent Record
By CHARLES S. JOHNSON
Attorney General Mike McGrath has sued two national pharmaceutical companies and accused them of manufacturing certain prescription drugs that were “in defective condition and unreasonably dangerous.”
McGrath filed the complaint in state district court in Helena Wednesday against Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc. and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP over their prescription drugs Risperdal and [...]
February 22, 2008
McGrath files suit against 2 drug firms
Billings Gazette
By CHARLES S. JOHNSON
HELENA – Attorney General Mike McGrath has sued two national pharmaceutical companies and accused them of manufacturing certain prescription drugs that were “in defective condition and unreasonably dangerous.”
McGrath filed the complaint in state district court in Helena on Wednesday against Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc. and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP over the prescription drugs [...]
February 21, 2008
Wonder drugs
Philadelphia Inquirer
Letters to the Editor
Your article about adverse side effects and the resulting lawsuits from atypical antipsychotic drugs (“Tarnished view of wonder drugs,” Feb. 17) is disturbing for what it reveals about the tactics the pharmaceutical industry uses to promote powerful and often harmful drugs.
Just as disturbing is that this story and most articles about [...]
February 17, 2008
Tarnished View of Wonder Drugs
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Karl Stark
When they were first introduced in the early 1990s, new antipsychotic medications for severe mental illness were seen as wonder drugs that were safer and more effective than their predecessors.
Sales soared as doctors tried them on new conditions, including dementia, aggression and other behavioral problems. Children and the elderly were among the [...]
February 4, 2008
Pill Push Rage – Pol Wants Probe
New York Post
By SUSAN EDELMAN
A key New York state senator demanded yesterday that top health and mental-health officials explain why the Medicaid program has been paying for tens of thousands of children to receive psychiatric drugs that have not been FDA-approved for kids.
Thomas Morahan (R-Rockland), chairman of the senate’s Committee on Mental Health and Developmental [...]
