Mass Torts Update - Written by Jere Beasley on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 9:25 - 1 Comment

Lilly Zyprexa group buyers win class action status

A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, ruled recently that pension funds, labor unions and insurance companies that bought Eli Lilly & Co’s Zyprexa drug could sue as a group and were entitled to a jury of claims the medicine was overpriced. As we have reported, Zyprexa is approved to treat schizophrenia and disorder. The Plaintiffs Lilly urged doctors to prescribe Zyprexa for uses not approved by the . The institutional buyers, who sought $6.8 billion in damages, Lilly overpriced the drug by making excessive claims about Zyprexa’s usefulness, violating the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. The judge found “sufficient evidence of ” by Lilly in selling the drug to justify a jury . The judge certified the case as a class action on the RICO claims for all Plaintiffs except individual patients who bought the drug, rejecting Lilly arguments that the pension funds, unions and insurance companies had claims too different to be tried together. These Plaintiffs, all third-party payors, bought the drug for members or customers.


The court has limited the for damages to four years, from June 20, 2001 until June 20, 2005 when the suit was filed. The third-party payors include: the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund, or UFCW (a Philadelphia-based fund representing 20,000 food and commercial workers), Mid- West Life Insurance, and the Sergeant Benevolent Association Health and Welfare Fund, which represents current and retired New York City Police sergeants and their families — 33,000 people. The judge denied class action status to individuals with claims because he found their proposed leaders can’t properly represent the proposed class.

This case will be watched closely for further developments. Since the Plaintiffs’ state law claims weren’t certified for class status, and claims by individual payors weren’t included, the court’s decision is said to be a partial win for both sides.

Source: Bloomberg News




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Daniel Haszard
Oct 9, 2008 13:05

Lilly’s top blockbuster Zyprexa is implicated in ‘causing’ diabetes and Lilly’s other blockbuster Byetta helps to treat the diabetes caused by Zyprexa!

Zyprexa has generated a lot of bad press for Eli Lilly and they still have unresolved Zyprexa settlement claims.
Eli Lilly is ‘reaping the whirlwind’ for aggressive marketing of Zyprexa that has caused suffering and deaths.

Daniel Haszard Zyprexa patient who got diabetes from it.

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