New York Times Puts More Pressure On Eli Lilly
This morning the New York Times reported that the Food and Drug Administration is investigating a preliminary Zyprexa study Eli Lilly conducted in 2000 that indicated the drug increased blood sugar. From the Times:
“The F.D.A. has questions about a Lilly document from February 2000 in which the company found that patients taking Zyprexa in clinical trials were three and a half times as likely to develop high blood sugar as those who did not take the drug. That document was not submitted to the agency. But a few months later, Lilly provided data to the F.D.A. that showed almost no difference in blood sugar between patients who took Zyprexa and those who did not.”
Eli Lilly said it “had rechecked its database and found errors in the original statistics. The data submitted later was accurate.”
Interestingly, the Times’ reporting is based on documents it received in violation of a protective order sealing the materials from public view. The reporter who wrote this and other Zyprexa-related stories, Alex Berenson, was blasted by a New York judge for engaging in “reprehensible” activities and for being “deeply involved in the effort to illegally obtain the documents.”
The saga continues . . .
