Lilly strengthens Zyprexa warnings

Eli Lilly is owning up to Zyprexa's ills in new warnings added to the medicine's label. The schizophrenia drug will now be tagged with weight gain, high blood sugar high cholesterol, and other metabolic problems.

It's the first time Zyprexa's label has acknowledged that it causes high blood sugar more readily than other atypical antipsychotics. In fact, Lilly has argued against it, saying that the difference wasn't proven. The label also admits that weight gain may continue for as long as two years, rather than plateauing in a few months as previously stated.

Though Zyprexa has steadily lost market share since 2004 because of side effects, it still delivered $2.3 billion in worldwide sales the first half of this year.

- see Lilly's release
- read the article from the New York Times

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