Eli Lilly

While its peers appear to be firmly opposed to such rules, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has decided to support federal legislation that would require drugmakers to disclose payments to doctors.... Read more...

Hoping to stave off outside regulation by Congress, a group of the nation's largest drug and device manufacturers have put forth plans to publicly disclose the grants they make to outside... Read more...

> Officials say 40,000 people may have been infected with HIV and hepatitis at a Las Vegas clinic, which was found to have re-used its syringes and medicine vials. Read more...

Questions continue to dog the medication monitoring program managed by a contractor for drugmaker Eli Lilly, that has been working to cut costs for psychiatric medications for 20 Medicaid programs.... Read more...

> Boston teaching hospital giant Beth Israel Deaconess is planning a $30 million expansion for one of its suburban locations. Article

> An Eli Lilly foundation has awarded an Indianapolis group about $500,000 to help
it train those with poor English skills to negotiate the health system. …

... Read more...

In yet another behind-the-scenes look at the drug industry, a former drug rep and a researcher who studies pharma marketing have published research outlining the pharma sales strategies. The article, which appears in journal PLoS Medicine, describe how drug reps use gifts, dinners, free samples and personal ties to manipulate physicians' prescribing patterns. Reps may also cozy up to office staffers if physicians won't meet with them. What's more, they usually come armed with …

... Read more...

Concerned about the large and growing cost of antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, a number of states have taken Eli Lilly up on its offer to make sure Medicaid physicians stick to Zyprexa prescribing guidelines. The question, though, is whether states are getting what they're supposed to from these programs.

Zyprexa, which treats bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, generates the biggest single drug cost for state Medicaid programs. These programs spent $1.3 billion on the drug in 2005, …

... Read more...

>  Like several other healthcare systems, Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System has partnered with a retail clinic operator, MedBasics, to offer physician oversight for the clinics. Report

> Several large employers, including Accenture, General Mills and 3M, came together this week to promise that they'll collect (and share) healthcare quality information. …

... Read more...

Eli Lilly has agreed to pay as much as $500 million to settle 18,000 claims that people who took the drug developed diabetes. Previous data indicated that patients on Zyprexa were 3.5 times more likely to experience elevated blood sugar levels than volunteers taking a placebo, and the disease is heavily influenced by weight gain and blood sugar levels. Report

> Eli Lilly has fired back a The New York Times piece which accuses the drugmaker of marketing antipsychotic drug Zyprexa illegally. Response

> Express Scripts has bid $26 billion on a bid to buy Caremark, potentially squeezing out CVS/pharmacy, whose bid came in lower. Caremark, however, said that it plans to go ahead with its previously announced CVS merger. …

... Read more...