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Arkansas planning suit against Eli Lily for Psych drug Zyprexa
Here’s a good bit of news. The State of Arkansas, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, plans a lawsuit against three drug firms, including Eli Lily, for fraud over a “marketing scheme” for anti-psychotic drugs. Basically the Attorney General (Dustin McDaniel) told lawmakers Friday he’s planning a lawsuit against the makers of Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel. He claims that the suit won’t cost Arkansas any money, as it’s being handled on spec by Bailey Perrin Bailey LLP of Houston. That firm is handling similar suits for a handful of other states, including Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia.
Basically there is aggressive marketing going on in those states, for “off-label” usage of these psych drugs. Seems that they’ve billed Arkansas $200,000,000 in the last few years for off-label usage of the psych drugs. That would be prescribing these drugs for things that they aren’t specifically approved by the FDA to treat.
Unfortunately, $600 million is just a drop in the bucket to Eli Lily. To really shut them down you’d need to sue for $600 billion.
It’s that out-of-control.
But this is, like the joke about “what do you call 12 dead lawyers at the bottom of a pool” — a good start.
