Eli Lilly announced a $62 million settlement in 32 states for the marketing of its block buster drug Zyprexa. In the 12 years it has been on the market, the company says it has been prescribed 26 million times. Zyprexa is known to cause weight gain leading to diabetes, heart disease, both of which are associated with early death. Other law suits are still outstanding. Since 2005, according to SEC filings, costs associated with Zyprexa lawsuits, including legal fees, amount to $1.6 billion.
GSK and Paxil
Earlier this week, GlaxoSmithKline settled a $40 million class action suit with insurance companies that paid for prescribing the anti-depressant Paxil to children. This settlement does not dispose of individual civil cases such as involving the suicide of a New Jersey teenager, Jake Garrison.
