http://www.themoneytimes.com/news/20070613/lilly_settles_900_zyprexa_claims-id-104680.html
"Indianapolis -- Indianapolis-based drug giant Eli Lilly and Co. said Tuesday it settled 900 more product liability claims against its top-selling drug Zyprexa.
Four of the claims were scheduled to go to trial in July, The Indianapolis Star reported Tuesday. Thousands of patients sued Lilly, claiming the pharmaceutical firm hid risks of weight gain and diabetes associated with Zyprexa.
Under terms of the settlement, Lilly did not disclose the amount of the settlements, and did not admit any wrongdoing.
"While we continue to believe we would have prevailed had we gone to trial, resolving these claims will help Lilly return its focus to addressing unmet medical needs for patients and physicians," Michael J. Harrington, Lilly's deputy general counsel, said in a statement.
About 750 claims remain unsettled. The company also faces lawsuits from several states -- among them Alaska, Mississippi, Louisiana, Utah and West Virginia -- seeking to recoup Medicaid money spent caring for Zyprexa patients."
CONVICTED FELONS - ELI LILLY:
http://www2.indystar.com/library/factfiles/business/companies/lilly/lilly.html
"...Oraflex, the American version of Benoxaprofen, was withdrawn from the market in 1982 - just one month after gaining FDA approval.
A British medical journal found five cases of death due to jaundice in patients taking the drug and the FDA accused Lilly of supressing unfavorable research findings. In 1985, the U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against the company and Dr. William Ian H. Shedden. Lilly pleaded guilty to 25 criminal counts and paid a $25,000 fine..."
"The newly released report was prepared as part of a plea bargain with Lilly, which was fined $25,000 last week after pleading guilty to criminal charges of failing to notify the Government of deaths and injuries associated with the drug.
The report is the most detailed account that Federal prosecutors have provided of Lilly's actions in seeking approval for Oraflex. It says that Lilly had extensive information about deaths and ailments associated with Oraflex as early as 1981, but repeatedly failed to provide details to the Food and Drug Administration, as required. ..."
"...Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of the Washington-based Public Citizen Health Research Group, a consumer-affairs organization, said today that the department's report proved that ''the people in this company should have been put in jail'' and that the fine was a ''slap on the wrist.''