Lilly Launches Public Outreach Initiative to Correct Allegations About Company and Prozac
Eli Lilly and Company announced its plans to correct inaccurate statements circulating in the news media based on a collection of random papers anonymously sent to the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Lilly has posted a detailed explanation of those papers in question on its website and has published an open letter to patients in leading U.S. newspapers to state its case.
"While it is important that we correct false assertions about how Lilly manages its data, it is even more important to set the record straight for patients who rely on our medicines for their daily well-being," said Sidney Taurel, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "It is simply wrong to suggest that information on Prozac was ever missing or that important research data on the benefits and possible side effects of the drug were not available to doctors and regulators," said Taurel.
The article published by the BMJ and subsequent articles from various media contain false allegations regarding disclosure about important Prozac safety information as well as misleading and scientifically invalid conclusions about Prozac data.
Erroneous conclusions drawn from tables comprised of spontaneous adverse event data (a reporting system for a particular drug comprised of adverse events occurring in people taking the drug) in the documents obtained by BMJ are at the heart of the data misrepresentations and reflect the fundamental problem of the BMJ reporting on statistical information without providing scientific context. Specifically, the media reports stating that Prozac is 12 times more likely to cause suicide than other, older antidepressants is patently false and not supported by clinical trial data.
"A worrisome outcome from these inaccurate reports would be for patients who are stable on medication to stop treatment unnecessarily, which has the potential of undoing clinical progress and setting back patients in their illness," said Doctor Breier.
To demonstrate Lilly's transparency, the company is in the process of talking to all parties - the FDA, Congressman Hinchey, and the BMJ, in an effort to resolve the situation. Lilly is committed at the highest level to ensuring that all parties, and most importantly, our customers, are satisfied with those answers.
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