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PIERRE — State Attorney General Larry Long announced Thursday that South Dakota has joined with other states and the federal government and reached a $1.4 billion settlement with Eli Lilly and Co., to settle allegations it engaged in an off-label marketing campaign that improperly promoted the anti-psychotic drug, Zyprexa. Eli Lilly will pay the states and the federal government a total of $800 million in damages and penalties to compensate Medicaid and various federal health care programs for harm suffered as a result of this conduct. South Dakota’s total settlement recovery is $1.4 million. Of that amount, South Dakota will...

A third pharmaceutical giant said Sunday it is being investigated by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over alleged breaches of the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Eli Lilly and Company Limited said it had been asked to hand over documents to the SFO, a day after British peer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca announced they had received similar requests.

OXFORD, Miss. - Mississippi filed a lawsuit Monday against Eli Lilly and Co., alleging improper sales and marketing of the anti-psychotic prescription drug Zyprexa. The lawsuit was filed in Lafayette County Circuit Court. Tim Balducci of the Langston Law Firm in Booneville, named a special assistant attorney general to handle the case, said the lawsuit seeks to recover money the state spent to purchase Zyprexa to treat symptoms for which the drug has not been approved. It also seeks money spent in providing health care to certain Medicaid recipients who allegedly suffered injuries or illnesses - such a diabetes -...

Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Suicide rates among the youngest and oldest Americans have steadily declined since the late 1980s, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a finding that contradicts popular conceptions that rates were rising. The study suggests that new antidepressant drugs may not raise the risk of suicide after all, the researchers said, but they acknowledge they are mystified by what might be causing the decline, because it is not affecting people aged 25 to 64. "For 40 years adolescent suicide rates rose," said Dr. Robert McKeown, a professor at the University of South Carolina's school...

The users call the drug Lizzie, the Big Brother or sometimes Gilly. On blogs they rave over its uncanny ability to melt away pounds, although some are wary of its side effects, which can include nausea and strange welts. The users are not fad dieters or methamphetamine addicts, but people with diabetes. And the subject of their rhapsodies is not a gray-market diet pill sold on late-night television but Byetta, a federally approved diabetes medicine, available only by prescription, whose popularity and sales have soared since its introduction last June. For diabetics, the weight loss caused by Byetta comes as...

AP MEDICAL WRITER KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Women who have higher natural estrogen levels also may have a higher risk of stroke - a novel finding that suggests a possible new way to prevent this deadly disease, doctors reported Friday. More study is needed to confirm these results, but they fit with much of what is already known about hormones, said several experts who were not connected with the new work. "This is really interesting," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, a women's health researcher and chief of preventive medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "These findings would be consistent...

WHAT?ARE YOU CRAZY? © 2004 B. K. Eakman A new nationwide initiative has been quietly in the making since 2002. Conceived in Texas, apparently with President George W. Bush’s enthusiastic blessing, there now exists some 27 sites around the country piloting various parts of it.Nationally, however, the proposed legislation earned barely a blip on the radar screen — the project is so hush-hush that two officials were sacked for speaking to the press about it — until mid-July, when the House Appropriations Committee approved $20 million in new federal monies to begin nationwide implementation. The New Freedom Initiative — a...

ALEXANDRIA, VA – (September 2, 2005) The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. has provided a $10 million gift to The Salvation Army to assist with on-going relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The funds are the largest single gift to The Salvation Army designated for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. One hundred percent of every dollar contributed to The Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster Relief Fund is sent directly to the disaster location. “Lilly Endowment is pleased to make this grant to The Salvation Army, which time and time again has effectively delivered aid in times of great need,” said N....

Home Help Search Archive Feedback Table of Contents Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced] BMJ  2005;330:7 (1 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7481.7 Extract of this article PDF of this article Email this article to a friend Respond to this article Download to Citation Manager Search Medline for articles by: Lenzer, J. Alert me when: New articles cite this article News FDA to review "missing" drug company documents Jeanne Lenzer New York The US Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review confidential drug company documents that went missing during a controversial product liability suit more than 10 years ago. The documents appear to suggest a link...

Ousted Army Chief Blasts Bush Iraq Policy Tue Sep 2, 4:49 PM ET By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer WASHINGTON - Thomas E. White, forced to resign as Army secretary in May, has fired back in a book that describes the Bush administration's postwar effort in Iraq (news - web sites) as "anemic" and "totally inadequate." The book, which presents a blueprint for revitalizing Iraq, asserts that the administration underestimated the difficulty of putting that country back on its feet after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). "Clearly the view that the war to `liberate' Iraq would...

While gay marriage is a current hot-button issue for politicians, business leaders have been wrestling for years over whether to offer health coverage to their employees' domestic partners. As employers look into the benefits and costs of covering domestic partners, more and more of them are saying yes--not due to a court order or political pressure but because they think it makes good business sense. Since last year, 34 of the 500 biggest U.S. public companies have started the coverage, bringing the total up to 210, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based gay and lesbian lobbying group....

Kids Face Risks Taking Antidepressants  Feb 2, 9:21 PM (ET) By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP) The graphic details possible signs of depression among adolescents and possible cures. Depression...Full Image   WASHINGTON (AP) - Parents need warnings that popular adult antidepressants may sometimes spur suicide when taken by children and teenagers, government advisers said Monday after hearing emotional testimony from families who lost loved ones. It isn't clear yet that the drugs lead to suicide, but until that is settled, parents and doctors need to know they may cause agitation, anxiety and hostility in a subset of young patients who may be...

<p>Eli Lilly and Co. has begun to limit its drug sales to Canadian pharmacies, joining other drug companies that are trying to prevent their medications from being sold to U.S. consumers from Canada.</p> <p>The Indianapolis-based drug maker told 24 Canadian drug wholesalers in a letter that it will limit sales of its drugs to amounts that Lilly estimates are sufficient to supply the Canadian market only.</p>

A True story: As charge nurse on a locked adolescent psychiatric unit, my responsibilities included insuring unit safety as well as screening incoming calls. So I kept a vigilant eye on the hallway as I answered the incessantly ringing phone. A woman’s frantic voice shrieked into my ear, “What do I do? He’s choking the cat and I can’t get him to stop!” After referring the mother to more appropriate treatment for her little darling, I couldn’t help but consider how my parents would have handled the situation. I was reared by conservative parents who were reared by conservative parents...

<p>Last week's announcement by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that it had extended its antidiscrimination policy to include gay and lesbian employees underscored a new reality: The workplace is becoming gay-friendly.</p> <p>Some gay activists, in fact, consider Wal-Mart a laggard, given all the large companies that already have adopted such policies. According to a tally kept by Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay-rights advocacy group, 318 of the nation's 500 largest public employers have similar bans on discrimination based on sexual orientation. Additionally, 198 of those companies offer health-insurance benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees, a measure Wal-Mart stopped short of adopting.</p>

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Internet journal TomPaine.com announced today that it will give a $10,000 reward to the first person who proves the identity of what it dubbed the 'Eli Lilly Bandit' - the member of Congress responsible for the special liability exemption recently granted to Eli Lilly & Company. The provision gives the drug maker something it has long desired - a shield from lawsuits by parents who claim the company's vaccines caused their children's autism. Reporters have been unable to discover who inserted the provision at the last minute, as Congress was set to approve...

16-Year Old Boy Received Unsolicited Prozac in the MailBy Theresa Agovino The Associated PressPublished: Jul 19, 2002 NEW YORK (AP) - A 16-year-old boy was among southern Florida residents who received unsolicited samples of the antidepressant drug Prozac in the mail in a much-criticized and highly unorthodox marketing campaign. "I was livid," said the boy's mother, Sue Grinstead of Palm Beach. "My son knew enough not to take it, but what about the other kids?" A spokesman for the Walgreen Co. drugstore chain, Michael Polzin, confirmed the family's account that a month's supply of Prozac was sent to 16-year-old Michael...

June 15, 2002 | 11:42 AM The Wacky Dr. Waksal by Frank DiGiacomo and Ian Blecher On Dec. 5, 2001, ImClone Systems, a biotech company that was seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for a promising anti-cancer drug called Erbitux, saw its stock peak at a price of $74 a share and begin an earthward trajectory. On the evening of Dec. 6, ImClone’s chief executive, Sam Waksal, 54, threw his annual Christmas party at the 5,000-square-foot Thompson Street loft that he calls home. Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman was in attendance, as well as former New York Times executive editor...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Therapy is at least as effective in treating depression as drugs are, and its effects last longer, scientists said on Thursday in a report sure to annoy drug companies that make millions selling antidepressants. The cost of therapy is about the same as drugs short-term, and cheaper over the long term, the researchers told a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. "This will be a surprising, controversial finding for many psychiatric professionals," Robert DeRubeis, chair of the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "Most believe quite strongly in the efficacy of medication,...

In a perfect world, a list like this would not exist. In a perfect world, businesses would be run with the utmost integrity and competence. But ours is, alas, an imperfect world, and if we must live in one where Enron, Geraldo Rivera, and Cottonelle Fresh Rollwipes exist, the least we can do is catalog the absurdities. 1. Houston, We Have a Problem, Part 1: Enron states billions of dollars in extra revenue through aggressive accounting and complicated off-the-books partnerships managed by its own executives, all the while ignoring warnings from its employees and enriching its top executives at the...