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Eli Lilly accused of shaping drug guidelines
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of MSNBC/Associated Press
Posted: November 11th, 2006
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15320680/
Several government doctors say drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. subtly orchestrated medical guidelines for treatment of an often lethal blood infection, hoping to boost sales of a drug whose value is being debated. This company is trying to insinuate its drug into many aspects of patient care that industry really shouldnt be involved in, said Dr. Naomi OGrady, a critical care specialist at the National Institutes of Health. Three of her NIH colleagues claim in Thursdays New England Journal of Medicine that Lilly worked through medical societies to influence standards for treating the blood infection, sepsis. Ultimately, Xigris was incorporated into the guidelines. Both the guidelines committee and a larger information campaign on sepsis were heavily funded by [Lilly]. Dr. Phil Dellinger, who helped lead the guidelines committee, said...Weve been catching grief because weve been taking a lot of Lilly money and were appreciative of Lilly giving it. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Xigris in 2001, despite an evenly split vote by its advisory committee. The lead author of Thursdays journal article, Dr. Peter Q. Eichacker, voted against approval. Some critics are unhappy that the drug, which works only for the sickest patients, was approved on the basis of a single experiment. Academic officials acknowledged in the published guidelines that Lilly gave more than 90 percent of $861,000 in grants for the campaign and medical recommendations. OGrady, of NIH, said a panel of disease experts that she headed refused to endorse the sepsis guidelines largely because Lilly convened the whole panel.
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