"Eli Lilly has faced many lawsuits from people who claimed they developed diabetes or other diseases after taking Zyprexa, as well as by various governmental entities, insurance companies, and others. Lilly produced a large number of documents as part of the discovery phase of this litigation, which started in 2004; the documents were ruled to be confidential by a judge and placed under seal, and later themselves became the subject of litigation.[104] [106][107]
"A December 2006 New York Times article based on leaked company documents concluded that the company had engaged in a deliberate effort to downplay olanzapine's side effects.[106][108] The company denied these allegations and stated that the article had been based on cherry picked documents.[106][107] The documents were provided to the Times by Jim Gottstein, a lawyer who represented mentally ill patients, who obtained them from a doctor, David Egilman, who was serving as an expert consultant on the case.[104] In 2007 Lilly filed a protection order to stop the dissemination of some of the documents, which Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Brooklyn Federal District Court granted, and criticized the New York Times reporter, Gottstein, and Egilman in the ruling.[104] The Times of London also received the documents and reported that as early as 1998, Lilly considered the risk of drug-induced obesity to be a "top threat" to Zyprexa sales.[107] On October 9, 2000, senior Lilly research physician Robert Baker noted that an academic advisory board he belonged to was "quite impressed by the magnitude of weight gain on olanzapine and implications for glucose."[107]
"Lilly had threatened Egilman with criminal contempt charges regarding the documents he took and provided to reporters; in September 2007 he agreed to pay Lilly $100,000 in return for the company’s agreement to drop the threat of charges.[109]
"In September 2008 Judge Weinstein issued an order to make public Lilly's internal documents about the drug in a different suit brought by insurance companies, pension funds, and other payors.[104]
"In March 2008 Lilly settled a suit with the state of Alaska[110] and in October 2008, Lilly agreed to pay $62 million to 32 states and the District of Columbia to settle suits brought under state consumer protection laws.[109]
"In 2009, Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to a US federal criminal misdemeanor charge of illegally marketing Zyprexa for off-label use and agreed to pay $1.4 billion.[111][112]"
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