The case for giving Eli Lilly the death penalty
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/129709/the_case_for_g...
"The lawsuit against Lilly stated, "In truth, this was Lilly's thinly veiled marketing of Zyprexa as an effective chemical restraint for demanding, vulnerable and needy patients."
Now for my personal story about Eli Lilly. These are the folks that came to me as a clinical manager and talked me into lettin gthem use our patients for a Clinical Research Trial. First, they sent me to Puerto Rico for training. It seems that as a territory, many of the pesky regulations that apply to states are not pertinent. You will find ALL the drug companies have major manufacturing, training and research facilities in PR, USVI, etc. They wanted a doctor to go, not me, but the doctors were too good to go to Puerto Rico...
Once there, I was carefully trained in how to elicit the type of information they sought... (Please consider that sentence carefully.)
I HONESTLY with all my heart thought I was doing the best thing for our patients. They got cutting edge "wonder drugs" PLUS they got money, we got CRAZY money, and Lilly was a good, reputable name... And so out of a desire to see patients continue with this medication that was their last hope, I helped patients word things just right so their adverse events could be attributed to something else, or at least get the waters nice and muddy. The one case that was so severe I balked earned me a very po'd patient. They wanted the check, they did not even care about the drug.
The only audit we ever got was by the research side of our team. We did the medical exams and there was another company that arranged visits, did paperwork, etc. They were quite diligent, the FDA nor Lilly ever reviewed a thing.
Somewhere in some off-site record storage facility is the information that Lilly did not want.
OK, and then in my personal life. I am one of those "teenagers or young adults" that was made suicidal by antidepressants. I am curious when I am officially grown up - seems like having 2 adult children would have counted... I also had a very dear friend who got put on paxil and turned into a vicious nymphomaniac. Now that sounds funny, but when a sweet young woman with 3 small children starts coming on to the 17 year old female babysitter, and giving her 17 year old nephew porn, it is really not funny. That family blew apart, and none of them have really recovered - almost ten years later.
Big pharma is shady, thats a
Big pharma is shady, thats a given.
We all know they push the limits of the FDA as much as possible.
zyprexa is well known for causing diabetes and huge weight gain. They dont do a good job of informing patients about this however.
Is prescribing zyprexa better than a first generation drug with the increased risk of tics and muscle contractions that could last for years?
For the patients that really need them, these side effects might be justified. But many docs hand them out to people with simple depression. Is that justified? Is marketing them in this way justified?
Pharma companies often try to hide side effects. Physicians often arent educated enough to make a good risk / gain judgement. A good example is one in which a bipolar is prescribed an antidepressant and becomes manic on it. Id bet thats what happened to your friend.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants
Wow,wow,wow
I had NO idea this was all going on. My doctor always has something she wants me to take thank goodness most of the time I decline it. The cure is worse than the disease it seems. Good luck to all those who suffer.
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