Leaked Documents Spur Investigation into Lilly Drug Marketing

A U.S. federal court judge has extended an injunction banning groups in the U.S. from adding a weblink to leaked internal documents on Eli Lilly's schizophrenia and bipolar disorder drug, Zyprexa. Despite the injunction, the documents have been distributed around the world from websites outside the U.S. Lilly also has problems on another front. The New York Times reports that "lawyers from the consumer protection division of the Illinois attorney general's office demanded that Lilly hand over marketing materials, e-mail messages, and other documents with information about promotion" of the drug. Vermont government investigators have made a similar order. At issue is whether Lilly hid information on weight gain and the associated risk of diabetes and also promoted the use of the drug for patients who didn't have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.