And the GOP will keep telling America that industry should be allowed to self regulate. When you are in their pocket, what else are you going to say, really?
Eli Lilly encouraged primary care physicians to use Zyprexa, a powerful drug for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in patients who did not have either condition, according to internal Lilly marketing materials.How many times is the public going to be subjected to these tactics before Congress gets serious about this issue?
The marketing documents, given to The New York Times by a lawyer representing mentally ill patients, detail a multiyear promotional campaign that Lilly began in Orlando, Fla., in late 2000. In the campaign, called Viva Zyprexa, Lilly told its sales representatives to suggest that doctors prescribe Zyprexa to older patients with symptoms of dementia.
Zyprexa is not approved to treat dementia or dementia-related psychosis, and in fact carries a prominent warning from the F.D.A. that it increases the risk of death in older patients with dementia-related psychosis. Federal laws bar drug makers from promoting prescription drugs for conditions for which they have not been approved Â? a practice known as off-label prescription Â? although doctors can prescribe drugs to any patient they wish.
Yet in 1999 and 2000 Lilly considered ways to convince primary care doctors that they should use Zyprexa on their patients. In one document, an unnamed Lilly marketing executive wrote that these doctors Â?do treat dementiaÂ? but Â?do not treat bipolar; schizophrenia is handled by psychiatrists.Â?
As a result, Â?dementia should be first message,Â? of a campaign to primary doctors, according to the document, which appears to be part of a larger marketing presentation but is not marked more specifically.
Later, the same document says that some primary care doctors Â?might prescribe outside of label.Â?
