A former FDA official blasted Eli Lilly about Zyprexa's health risks Friday. And he did so in the Alaskan court where the state is suing Lilly, at the behest of the state's lawyers. The drugmaker, said retired medical officer John Gueriguian, softpedaled the risks so it could continue to reap millions in sales of the blockbuster drug. "Simply put, it's putting profit over the concern of the consumer," he told the jury.
Lilly told reporters--because it's not yet the company's turn to talk to the jury--that the company turned over its data to the FDA and hid nothing. The company also said that internal emails produced by the state--which showed that consultants had told the company in 2000 to "come clean" about the drug's health risks--were just a few "misleading" documents in millions of pages of records.
Alaska is one of nine states suing over Zyprexa and the first to take its dispute to trial.
- read the report from the Associated Press
- see more from the Santa Barbara News-Press
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